RWO wins ‘next generation’ data centre work

Author: Simon Rowley

North East engineer, RWO, has won work to support the development of the first of a new generation of data centres, strengthening its position as a growing provider of services to the sector.

The Newcastle-based firm is providing an undisclosed package of civil, structural and geo environmental engineering services for the Latos Data Centres hyperscale data centre in Cardiff, a Tier III asset designed to meet the needs of the most demanding global technology companies.

The move follows the Stockton-based IT services and consulting specialists’ announcement to deliver 40 new data centres across the UK by 2030. Cardiff will be the first of its data centres to go fully live later this year, and it’s set to offer a total of 90MVA across 50,400 square metres of floor space.

Power for the site will come from a 100% renewable energy supply from the National Grid, supported with a backup feed from the neighbouring 1000MW Tremorfa Energy Park – which is one of the world’s largest battery energy storage facilities.

RWO’s work, which is being undertaken in conjunction with Teesside architect, Create Architecture, sees the provision of engineering expertise to bring forward state-of-the-art facilities to meet strong demand for domestic data processing and storage capabilities.

The data centre market is poised for significant growth in the coming years, with forecasts indicating a substantial increase in demand, particularly when it comes to Artificial Intelligence (AI) – with the European AI market expected to grow by 25.9% in 2024, with annual growth of 15.9% until 2030.

The Cardiff project comes as RWO continues to expand operations beyond its traditional North of England heartland.

Ross Oakley, Managing Director of RWO, says, “Securing this work is another big step forward for us as we continue to grow our presence in the burgeoning data centre design and build sector. Our involvement through the planning and pre-construction phase, coupled with our in-depth knowledge of highly-specialist industrial and temperature-controlled facilities such as this, has enabled us to bring forward an effective programme of engineering to deliver the project.”

Latos plans to open its purpose-built data centres across the UK by 2030 as part of a mission to enable UK businesses to capitalise on the power of advanced computing, including AI.

For more from Latos Data Centres, click here.