Energy management and automation company, Schneider Electric, has teamed up with Nairobi-based IXAfrica Data Centres to inaugurate Kenya and East Africa’s first and largest hypercloud data centre.
The facility, nicknamed ‘NBOX1’, is built around Schneider Electric’s Medium Voltage (MV) and Low Voltage (LV) switchgear to ensure stable, reliable cloud services powered sustainably by Kenya’s grid.
NBOX1, now operational, stands as the most advanced and extensive carrier-neutral, AI-ready data centre in East Africa. It aims to attract hyperscale and internet customers, offering a user experience on par with leading facilities in North America and Western Europe.
The foundation of NBOX1 is Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure for Data Centers architecture, providing maximum resilience, uptime, cost efficiency, enhanced security, and sustainability. This partnership is backed by a $50 million capital investment from Helios, positioning the data centre within Africa’s burgeoning ‘Digital Savannah’, serving over 300 million people. This ecosystem is ripe for innovation, supported by a skilled workforce, cloud providers, and robust colocation and connectivity services.
“Kenya is a hypercloud-ready region with advanced cloud adoption propensities, a digitally savvy ecosystem, access to diverse internet fibre connectivity, high-availability, and low-carbon sources of power. This all sits within a country offering a stable regulatory and political environment, and a strong economy forecast to grow 5.2 per cent in 2024,” CEO of IXAfrica, Snehar Shah, said.
Ensuring Power Quality and Reliability
To guarantee ongoing and dependable IT operations, IXAfrica enlisted Schneider Electric for the power train solution, including power protection and distribution equipment, transformers, MV and LV switchgear, and a basic Building Management System (BMS) for monitoring. Schneider Electric collaborated with local consultants, Prisma Techniques, to meet the design objectives provided by FutureTech on behalf of IXAfrica, ensuring compliance with IEC standards and local requirements.
“The solutions provided by Schneider Electric are engineered to support N+1 redundancy with four independent power trains, meeting IXAfrica’s immediate and long-term objectives, including design 1.25 Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) across the campus, as well as a 99.999% uptime guarantee,” stated Ifeanyi Odoh, Schneider Electric Country President in East Africa.
Secure Power Vice President for the Middle East & Africa at Schneider Electric, Mouna Essa Egh, emphasised their commitment to sustainable solutions, saying, “We believe that sustainable practices are essential for the future of data centres, and we are proud to partner with organisations like IXAfrica to create environmentally conscious and innovative digital habitats for the evolving technological landscape.”
The new data centre is designed as a ‘Data Centre of the Future’, with components of the EcoStruxure for Data Centers platform, including the Galaxy VX modular 3-phase UPS with lithium-ion batteries, PDUs, and LV and MV switchgear. These elements not only ensure high performance, resilience, and efficiency but also align with IXAfrica’s sustainability goals, reducing CO2 emissions and enhancing energy savings.
