Power is one of the most important things to consider when building a data center. The availability of reliable, steady, and connected power is a critical element that brings a data center to life and keeps the critical IT infrastructure up and running.
In order to ensure continuous uptime and minimize outages as much as possible, the main power supply comes from the national grid.
Yesterday onsite at the Namanve Industrial and Business Park, Raxio Data Centre welcomed a key partner in the construction of the Tier III carrier-neutral data center, UMEME Limited is the national electricity distributor and being a partner with Raxio will guarantee more power sources.
The equipment, consisting of a Ring Main Unit, Metering Unit, Meter Box and supporting accessories, will ensure that Raxio’s Data Centre is kitted with vast power connections to operate at full capacity.
Remarks from the Officials
While receiving the equipment Raxio Data Centre General Manager Mr. James Byaruhanga noted that:
“As Raxio Data Centre, we are excited about this step forward, this is a huge milestone for this project as power is a very crucial element in our operations. The connection of the Ring Main Unit (RMU) to the UMEME Limited power ring means power is delivered to Raxio Data Centre from two different power sources – Namanve Power Sub-Station and Kiwanga Power Sub-Station. This is unique as it complies with N+1 power redundancy that ensures power availability in the event of power failure at one sub-station”.
Present at the delivery from UMEME Limited was David Birungi (Manager, Stakeholder Relations) and Engineer Isaac Serwadda (Head Capital Projects) who stated that:
“As Umeme our Mandate is to distribute power efficiently, effectively and reliably. We have Done an underground network within the park that stretches for about 25km. We are doing this to enable easy connections of power to the various industries within the park that has about 100MW demand from about 112 industries of which Raxio Data Centre is a part of.”
It is important to note that data centers provide power to more than just servers. In practical terms, data centre power design accommodates systems that make up its infrastructure.
Among others, air handlers, air cooling, ventilation systems, lighting, environmental controls, fire suppression systems, security systems, surveillance cameras, and sensors all taking up a substantial amount of power.
For now, Raxio continues to welcome partners to power its Tier III data center located in Namanve that will be available to private and public companies in Uganda.
Leaping at a low-cost margin, once finished, Raxio data center will be one of the few Tier III level data centers in the country after NITA-U’s Government Data Center in Jinja.