Leading Edge Design Group

April 29, 2010 – Hanover, NH – Leading Edge Design Group, a leading provider of energy optimization services, announced today that they are scheduled to break ground on the US Army Corps of Engineers Data Center on Monday, May 3rd, 2010. The new Tier III facility, recently designed by Leading Edge Design Group, is set to be completed on a fast-track construction schedule.

The aggressive schedule, being called “Extreme Makeover – Data Center Edition” by the project management team at Leading Edge Design Group, will require extensive trade and site coordination. “We are anticipating an extremely busy construction site for the second half of the construction process,” said Jay Boucher, Principal of Leading Edge Design Group. “All infrastructure paths, site work, and equipment locations are being extensively detailed to ensure a seamless project implementation.”

Despite the schedule, Leading Edge Design Group expects to complete the Data Center startup on time, enabling the Army Corps to leverage the new facility for critical projects scheduled for the summer months.

Since I reside in New England I can only relate directly to these utility programs in this area, however I can only imagine that the story is the same all over the country. My goal here is to have a lively discussion about how these programs were born, the long strange trip they have been on from their origin to today and how they impacted businesses and the economy- so come along for the ride!

At some point in the mid-late 80’s the utility companies in these parts were in a world of hurt. Their capacity to produce power was at its upper limits, their grids were saturated and the infamous nuclear power plants they were building to address the crisis turned out to be a disaster. The entire country was having one big China Syndrome nightmare featuring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemon and Michael Douglas in their mighty struggles to prevent a major catastrophe at a nuke plant. This was not a particularly good time for power companies to say the least.

All IT teams we work with today are struggling to understand ways in which they can increase the energy efficiency of their data center operations. Unfortunately, the scramble to demonstrate some quantifiable decrease in energy in the data center has led to uninformed decision making, impetuous investments, and increased frustration on the part of IT teams in determining the most effective means of creating an energy efficient operation. 

These frustrations are certainly warranted.  As energy efficiency in the data center has become a ubiquitous industry goal, the number and complexity of solutions available to increase efficiency have risen exponentially.  Determining the best solution for a given IT environment is challenging, especially as case studies continue to emerge detailing innovative solutions—outside air as a primary cooling infrastructure, nearby rivers as a heat rejection mechanism—and much more.

The product should have an addressable module that would allow custom adjustment of the ballast factor preferably wirelessly from a laptop or a wireless connection to a regional gateway that is connected to a building automation system.

This would allow you to be able to customize the light levels in a space to meet standards without over lighting or under lighting. This would maximize the kW savings and the associated energy costs savings with out the trial and error that could be associated with drawings and projected foot candle predictions.

In a retro fit application existing conditions do not always present easy ways to hard wire cables and controls.

March 31, 2010 – Hanscom AFB, MA – Leading Edge Design Group, a leading provider of energy optimization services, announced today that construction is scheduled to begin immediately on the Hanscom Air Force Base Data Center. Leading Edge Design Group recently completed the design for the next-generation data center facility, which involves reconstituting a legacy data center on the base and implementing new critical infrastructure systems.

Todd Boucher, Principal at Leading Edge Design Group, described the project as having “a significant number of constraints” due to existing site conditions. “We are pleased to have worked closely with Hanscom Air Force Base to ensure the design meets both budgetary and projected scheduling requirements,” says Boucher.

The new data center’s energy efficient design will feature a modular UPS system and In Row cooling architecture, as well as new emergency power and environmental monitoring infrastructures.