Hyperscale data centre campus

Context

Hyperscale data centres concentrate enormous electrical loads, dense distribution, and business-critical uptime inside very large fire compartments — a combination the prescriptive code was never written for. The fire strategy has to protect life safety without compromising the operational requirements that make the facility viable.

My role

I was the fire safety engineer on the project team — developing the fire engineering strategy, assessing departures from Deemed-to-Satisfy provisions, and coordinating fire safety requirements across the design team.

Approach

• Performance-based assessment of large-compartment and egress departures under the NCC.
• Fire and smoke modelling to test tenability under the design fire scenarios.
• Fire safety strategy for high-hazard spaces — battery and UPS rooms, generators, fuel storage.
• Coordination with services and structural design, and with the certification and authority pathway.

Outcome

A fire engineering strategy that supports the compliance pathway while preserving the operational design intent of the facility.