Eemshaven, Groningen, The Netherlands

Client: Confidential

Megawatts: 120

We were engaged to provide full commissioning management services for two 60 MW data centre builds in Eemshaven, The Netherlands for major DC end user. These data centres combined power purchases from local wind turbines and solar panels to help make carbon-free energy available around the clock.  

Both two storey data centres were supported by an external CUB (Central Utility Building), Cooling Towers, Water Dispersal Building, Generator and Fuel Oil Farms.

We were appointed as the contractor-side commissioning managers (CxC). As the independent commissioning manager, we worked under the main contractor (CM/GC). We were integral in driving the entire commissioning process from levels 1 to 5. Conducting daily commissioning progress meetings, providing specialist building services knowledge to assist in foreseeing and avoiding, and where necessary mitigating the impact of delays to the service completion with consequential delays to the overall project completion, working closing with the planners, delivery teams, and stakeholders.

We would develop, control, monitor, analyse and report on commissioning levels 1 to 5 using our bespoke reporting tools, some of which we redeveloped to support this resource-loaded project.

We were integral in creating a collaborative working environment and focussing the large, on and off-site team on the critical path and issue resolution, with a huge focus on the daily schedules and programme lookaheads - always ensuring the correct strategies and actions to ensure project compliance to contractual deliverables, in agreement with the wider project team and end client.

The global pandemic impacted this project daily, like many projects at the time. The biggest challenge was resource. The pandemic not only stretched the resource on site but often prevented resource mobilisation completely. We would frequently have to adapt and implement strategies to work around this.

One of our biggest values to the project was our professional association across the large team, breaking down communication and driving a collaborative and transparent workspace.