Things are never quiet in the world of data centres – there is always something that needs doing. Over the last 12 months keeping the data centre running and making sure it can serve everyone’s needs when working remotely has been a major focus of attention.
What we do need to be careful of though, is ensuring that some of the essential obligations do not fall by the wayside. One of those is electrical testing and certification. To comply with your duty of care obligations, under the Electrical work regulations 1989, it is recommended that Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) routine checks are conducted on an annual basis. The maximum period between inspections should be no longer than 3-5 years.
So whilst you might be forgiven for letting it drop off the priority list in 2020, you should certainly be looking to see when the last report was conducted – it is a legal requirement placed upon employers for workplace electrical safety inspection and maintenance.
Separate to the EICR report inspections, we also recommend that a thermal imaging site survey is conducted annually. It can be a quick and cost-effective way to identify hotspots, caused by power or cooling issues that can affect the energy efficiency and resilience of the data centre. This can include identifying issues such as circuit breaker loading, LV switchgear and harmonics, UPS problems and unbalanced electrical circuits. Quite incredible given the test can be conducted in a live environment just using very high-definition thermal cameras.
If you think it might be time for an electrical inspection, or you’ve not conducted a thermal imaging site survey for some time, then click on the links in this a paragraph to be taken to more detail about how we can help you. You can also contact the team on 01983 885 182 or [email protected]
