AT&T Data Center | Commercial Cooling System

The Madison Complex—a series of three separate buildings including the main equipment facility for AT&T—required a complete refurbishment of the main chiller and cooling tower plants with approximately 4,000 tons of cooling capacity. California Energy Designs was the prime co-coordinator between the owner, the architectural & engineering teams, and the installing contractor. With each building (433 Olive Avenue, 19 stories; 434 Grand Avenue, 12 stories; and 420 Grand Avenue, 16 stories) comprising of approximately 22,000 sq. ft. per floor, the entire project called for an overhaul of the cooling system of over 1,000,000 sq. ft. of commercial space.

Adding further complexity, AT&T’s Madison Complex is one of the world’s largest “switching stations,” with its energy-intensive data center providing access to over one million phone lines. With data centers well-known for their significant heat emissions, designing a system capable of both cooling and providing proper airflow to such facilities requires a significant cooperative effort. California Energy Designs worked closely to co-ordinate development with the entire Madison Complex team to ensure the retrofit was completed in an energy-efficient and sustainable manner.

The project included 4,000-ton Chilled Water Plant retrofit, with full replacement of chillers, cooling towers, pumps (primary, secondary, and tertiary) and controls. Additionally, this retrofit also included the implementation of Siemens Demand Flow control for Central Plant Optimization.

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