Smarter Cooling, Stronger Uptime: How Advanced Metering Transformed a North London Data Centre

When you run a data centre, you don’t really care how “interesting” your cooling system is.

You care about three things:

1. Is it on?
2. Is it within SLA?
3. Is it costing you more than it should?

A recent project at a North London data centre tackled all three head‑on. The site has invested in a new adiabatic cooling system and brought us in to make sure it’s not just cold, but visible, measurable, and reliable.

The result: a fully deployed Janitza metering ecosystem that gives the operator live, actionable insight into how their cooling plant is behaving – and whether it’s putting uptime, SLAs, or energy costs at risk.

The Challenge: Cooling You Can’t See Is Risk You Can’t Control

Modern adiabatic cooling can be highly efficient, but it’s also complex. Without the right data, operators are often:

• Blind to where and when energy is being wasted
• Reactive rather than proactive on power quality issues
• Unsure how close equipment is running to its design and SLA thresholds
• Exposed to unplanned downtime because early warning signs are missed

This North London facility wanted to avoid that trap. The brief was clear:

Give us the visibility and assurance to keep the cooling system efficient, compliant, and resilient.

The Solution: A Fully Integrated Janitza Metering Ecosystem

We designed and deployed a full Janitza metering system, built around one goal:
turn raw electrical behaviour into clear, real‑time information.

1. Full System Design & Deployment

We didn’t just bolt meters onto existing panels. We:

• Designed a site‑wide metering architecture specifically for the new adiabatic cooling system
• Selected and configured Janitza meters at the right points in the electrical distribution to capture:
  • Energy consumption
  • Power quality (voltage, harmonics, imbalance, events)
  • Load behaviour on key items of cooling equipment
• Commissioned and tested the ecosystem to ensure accurate, consistent data

This gives the operator a solid measurement backbone they can trust.

2. Integration with BMS and GridVis

Data is only useful if people can see it where they work.

We integrated the metering into both:

• The site BMS (Building Management System) – so the operations team can see electrical and cooling performance together, in one familiar environment.
• GridVis – Janitza’s energy and power quality software – giving the client:
  • Real‑time dashboards
  • Alarming and event logging
  • Trend analysis over time
  • Reporting for compliance, audits, and management

This combination allows the team to move from vague “feels like it’s running hard” impressions to precise, data‑driven decisions.

What the Client Can See Now – In Real Time

With the new Janitza ecosystem live, the operator now has clear answers to critical questions.

Energy Consumption

• Where is energy actually being used within the cooling system?
• How does consumption change by load, time of day, and season?
• Are there obvious inefficiencies or abnormal patterns?

This insight supports cost control, PUE improvement, and sustainability reporting.

Power Quality

• Are there voltage dips, harmonics, or imbalance issues affecting the cooling plant?
• Are power quality issues coming from upstream, or being generated on site?
• Do power quality events correlate with alarms, faults, or performance drops?

By catching these issues early, the operator can prevent small electrical problems from becoming big operational failures.

Equipment Load & Performance

• Are pumps, fans, and control panels operating within their design limits?
• Are there recurring peaks that shorten equipment life or risk nuisance trips?
• Is the cooling system behaving as expected during high IT load conditions?

This level of visibility makes it far easier to plan maintenance, validate OEM recommendations, and justify capex decisions.

SLA Assurance: Keeping the Cooling System Within Bounds

Data centres live and die by their SLAs.

With the metering ecosystem tied into BMS and GridVis, the client can now:

• Monitor that the cooling system is operating within pre‑defined SLA thresholds
• See early‑warning signs when equipment or circuits begin drifting out of normal bands
• Back up performance claims with hard data in the event of a customer query or audit

Instead of hoping the system is compliant, they can prove it – in real time and historically.

Strengthened Uptime and Operational Resilience

Ultimately, this project is about uptime.

By combining metering, software, and integration, the North London site now has:

• Better fault detection – spotting anomalies before they trigger a failure
• Faster root‑cause analysis – when something does go wrong, the data shows why
• Reduced unplanned downtime risk – thanks to visibility on power quality, loading, and performance
• A stronger position when planning upgrades or capacity increases

Every minute of downtime in a data centre is expensive. This metering ecosystem is a practical, measurable step towards making those minutes far less likely.

In Summary

At this North London data centre, we have:

• Designed and deployed a full Janitza metering system for the new adiabatic cooling plant
• Integrated it into BMS and GridVis for real‑time visibility and analysis
• Given the client live insight into:
  • Energy consumption
  • Power quality
  • Equipment load and performance
• Helped ensure the cooling system operates within SLA thresholds
• Strengthened uptime and operational resilience across the site

If you’re running critical cooling and can’t clearly see how it’s performing electrically, you’re carrying more risk than you need to.

This project shows what happens when you make your cooling system measurable:
you make it manageable.