From Printing Works to Data Centre: Electrical, BMS, and Fire Safety Design for a Conversion
Concept and basic design of electrical, building management, and fire safety systems for the conversion of an existing printing facility into a data centre of under 10 MW, with approximately 9,000 m² of white space.
- IT power
- Under 10 MW
- White space
- ~9,000 m²
- Existing building reused
- Conversion
A printing works and a data centre have more in common than they appear to. Both are heavy buildings: strong floors, generous clear heights, industrial power supply, and a structure built around machines rather than people. That overlap is why conversions like this one are worth doing, and the differences are where the engineering sits.
TEBIN acted as electrical engineer on the conversion of an existing printing facility in Germany into a data centre of under 10 MW IT power, with approximately 9,000 m² of white space. The scope covered concept and basic design of the electrical systems, the building management system (BMS), and fire safety systems, delivered as design partner to the lead engineering firm.
What does an existing building give you, and what does it cost?
An industrial site brings advantages a greenfield plot does not: an established power supply, a structure already designed for heavy loads, and a location that would be difficult to secure new. What it also brings is a set of decisions already made: column grids, floor levels, riser positions, and an envelope fixed by someone solving a different problem decades earlier.
Data centre design normally begins by arranging the building around the power and cooling topology. In a conversion, the topology has to be arranged around the building. That inversion is the whole job.
Why is power distribution the governing system in a conversion?
Data centre electrical distribution is dense, heavy, and intolerant of detours. Switchrooms need floor area and access; distribution paths want to be short and direct; and every metre of additional route adds loss, cost, and coordination. In an existing building those paths compete with structure that cannot be moved.
The design focus on this project was reliable power distribution alongside system monitoring and control: establishing, at concept and basic design, an architecture that the existing building could actually carry.
Why do monitoring and life safety come in early rather than late?
The BMS and fire safety systems were part of the same scope rather than a later addition. In a conversion this matters more than in new build: fire strategy in an existing structure depends on compartmentation, escape routes, and detection coverage that were designed for a different occupancy and a different fire load. A data hall’s fire load and its life-safety requirements are not a printing hall’s.
Bringing monitoring, control, and detection into the concept stage is what allows the adaptation of the existing infrastructure to be assessed as a whole, instead of discovering at detailed design that the building cannot support the strategy.
Project outcome
TEBIN delivered concept and basic design for the electrical systems, building management, and fire safety systems of the converted facility, addressing reliable power distribution, system monitoring and control, life safety, and the adaptation of the existing building infrastructure to data centre requirements. Later design stages, construction, and commissioning sit with the parties holding those scopes.
Project FAQ
Can an industrial building be converted into a data centre?
It is a recognised route to capacity where grid connections and suitable sites are scarce. Industrial buildings often bring floor capacity, clear heights and an existing power supply, but the column grid, floor levels and envelope are fixed, so the power and cooling arrangement must be designed around the building instead of the other way round.
What did TEBIN design on this project?
Concept and basic design of the electrical systems, the building management system, and fire safety systems, as electrical engineer and design partner to the lead engineering firm.
Why is fire safety more complex in a conversion?
Compartmentation, escape routes and detection coverage in an existing building were designed for a different occupancy and fire load. A data hall imposes different requirements, so the fire strategy has to be re-established against the structure that exists.
