Emergency Power Fuel Infrastructure for a Data Centre: 16-Tank Storage and Distribution Design

A data centre emergency power system is judged by one question: when the grid fails, will the generators start and keep running for as long as they are needed? The answer depends as much on the fuel infrastructure behind the generator sets as on the generators themselves — storage capacity, transfer reliability, protection of buried pipework, and documentation that describes one consistent system.

TEBIN designed the fuel and urea storage and distribution systems for an emergency power supply system serving a data centre in the Netherlands. The work was delivered at RIBA Stage 5, carrying the coordinated design through to As-Built documentation. Andrii Sheronov led the project as Project Manager.

How was fuel autonomy secured?

The design placed 16 diesel fuel tanks with secondary containment, foundations, and compliance with fire safety standards, providing sufficient fuel autonomy to meet the project's KIWA BRL-K903 requirements — the Dutch assessment guideline applied to fuel storage installations.

Tank placement was an engineering task, not a layout exercise. Each tank needed containment volume, foundations, filling access, and clearances that worked with the site's fire-safety strategy and with the routing of the distribution network the tanks feed. Sixteen tanks also mean sixteen sets of connections that must behave identically in operation, which pushed the design toward repeatable, standardized arrangements.

What connects the tanks to the generators?

Fuel moves from storage to the generator sets through 4 filling cabinets and 8 pump rooms. TEBIN engineered the complete piping layout and equipment arrangement for these transfer nodes, delivering a unified design with integrated control, bypass, and drainage systems across all of them.

The interconnection scope covered the full route: supply and return piping between tanks, pump rooms, and generator sets, together with the emergency isolation logic that allows parts of the network to be shut off without losing the rest of the system. A backup fuel system is only useful if it behaves predictably under failure conditions, so isolation, bypass, and drainage logic were designed into the system rather than left as site decisions.

How is the buried infrastructure protected?

A large part of the distribution network runs underground, where corrosion is the long-term threat. TEBIN implemented cathodic protection for all buried metallic elements and designed a complete pipe support and bracket system for the installation, ensuring long-term structural integrity and corrosion resistance across the underground infrastructure.

Supports and brackets were treated as part of the system design, not as installer assumptions. Their positions and types influence pipe alignment, loads, clearances, and the sequence in which the network can be installed and maintained.

Why was prefabrication part of the engineering scope?

Repeating pipeline assemblies were developed as modular prefabrication blocks. Prefabrication reduces on-site installation time and keeps quality consistent across all fuel system nodes — but it only works when the design information is stable, with known dimensions, interfaces, and connection points.

Developing the prefabrication blocks within the design scope meant the same coordinated model and drawings served both fabrication and installation, instead of the contractor re-deriving assembly information on site.

What held the delivery together?

TEBIN led the project from concept through to As-Built documentation, maintaining continuous coordination with the civil, electrical, and controls disciplines so the fuel system arrived integrated rather than reconciled late. The documentation set covered piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), general arrangement drawings, isometrics, support drawings, and equipment schedules across all project stages.

Project outcome

The result is a coordinated fuel infrastructure basis for the data centre's emergency power supply system: 16 tanks with the autonomy the project required, predictable transfer through unified filling and pumping nodes, a protected underground network, prefabrication-ready assemblies, and a documentation package that describes the same system from concept to As-Built.