Our group member SGB Regensburg has delivered a 20 MVA cast resin transformer (30 kV/10 kV) to Frankfurt am Main. Taken by itself, this would not be such a big news - considering the transformer output of SGB Regensburg. However, the circumstances of the delivery and installation, as well as the industry for whose power supply the transformer is used, make the matter really interesting.
Data Center: Growth and demand
Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin are the hubs in Europe where more and more data centers are springing up. Together, in terms of energy hunger, they cracked the 2,000 MW mark in Q2 2020. And Frankfurt am Main is the location with the highest additional demand across Europe (source: Datacenter Insider / Datacenter Hawk). The reasons for this growth are clear: On the one hand, cloud services and developments such as SaaS (Software as a Service) require more and more capacity. On the other hand, European data protection regulations mean that providers are increasingly operating data centers in the EU / in Germany.
In terms of security and reliability of power supply, Data Centers are certainly among the most demanding customers - a good reason for SGB Regensburg to get involved in this industry with its product range of cast resin transformers.
30-ton transformer for the third floor
At the beginning of 2021, SGB Regensburg delivered a 20 MVA cast-resin transformer to a data center under construction in Frankfurt/Main. This delivery was part of the already fourth project for this customer; in total, the current orders comprise more than 80 transformers of different ratings, including 8 pieces of the 30-ton 20 MVA transformers alone.
The installation was also a first for the experienced assembly professionals from SGB Regensburg: The cast resin transformer had to be installed via a wall opening on the 3rd floor of the data center shell. A task that SGB once again mastered with the support of a mobile crane and a team from the Schmidbauer company.
- A steel structure with rails was erected on a 15-meter-high structure made of 5x2 sea containers.
- In addition, a scaffold was built for protection.
- The mobile crane lifted the transformer onto the uppermost container and placed it on the rails with centimeter precision.
- On these rails, the transformer was finally moved horizontally into the building and onto its assembly site.
... and all this at a temperature of -11°C and strong wind.
SGB Regensburg would like to thank the employees involved as well as external specialists - and of course the client for this challenging task! By the way, not least the accomplishment of this task has led to the fact that the client company has announced to remain loyal to the SGB-SMIT Group and to realize further Europe-wide projects together.
