New Scala Data Centers Substation to Support AI Demand
Scala Data Centers continues its commitment to powering a sustainable grid.
The leading Latin American (LATAM) data centre platform for the hyperscaler market has announced a power substation. In a transformative moment for Brazil’s digital infrastructure landscape, the substation will be dedicated to its Tamboré data centre campus in Brazil and seek to further strengthen the company’s ability to support increasing demands for data centre capacity.
This new strategic investment will also enable a monthly energy consumption greater than the entire country of Nicaragua, exceeding US$80m.
With Brazil fast-becoming a global artificial intelligence (AI) hub, the substation will support these growing digital transformation efforts - especially during a time of huge AI and machine learning (AI/ML) demands on the data centre industry.
Improving power reliability
Scala Data Centers continues to increase its LATAM presence, operating across Brazil, Chile and Colombia.
The company continues to upscale, having grown from 17 MW in bookings to 150 MW in less than three years. It also boasts the fourth largest data centre campus in the world – the biggest in Latin America by a considerable margin – and manages a team that has grown significantly during this time.
See our exclusive interview below with company co-founder and CEO Marcos Peigo to learn more about how Scala is growing so rapidly.
With a total IT capacity of 450 MW and 17 buildings when fully developed, the Tamboré Campus is the largest across LATAM and is set to be one of the biggest worldwide. It already presents itself as the leading destination of AI/ML workloads and can enable densities that will range from 24 kW per rack up to 100 kW per rack with the adoption of liquid cooling technologies.
The new substation was developed as part of a three-year project involving a multidisciplinary group and support from the government. It aims to reinforce Scala's commitment to operational excellence and customer satisfaction by enhancing the power reliability and resiliency of the campus, in addition to providing an avenue for major cloud and content providers to grow.
Named the SSUBTB03, the substation will be completed in two stages, the first of which is scheduled for December 2024. It will complement the existing SSUBTB01 and SSUBTB02 substations, each with 60 MW capacity.
“A dedicated on-site substation enhances the reliability and quality of the power supply due to its direct connection to the national grid,” states Fabio Yanaguita, Scala's Director of Energy.
This latest addition to the Tamboré campus also cements Scala's position as a leader in sustainable data centre practices while facilitating the integration of renewable energy sources into the power grid.
During a time of immense pressures being placed on grids around the world, data centres ensuring that their operations are equally energy efficient as they are innovative is paramount.
Scala continues to expand to satisfy demand
In efforts to rapidly expand, Scala has already committed US$1.6bn to its Tamboré campus and is ready to inject another US$3bn into its expansion efforts when it is fully developed. Already, it has made impressive progress at the campus, delivering its SGRUTB8 site with a remarkable 24 MW capacity and the SGRUTB12 site with 6 MW capacity in April.
These two newly operational buildings have brought the total number of hyperscale-dedicated sites in operation to five, in addition to the one dedicated to large enterprises.
Moving forward, the company is seeking to ramp up its data centre launches across each country it operates within, with expansions expected to reach a total of US$2bn by 2024 and 2025.
For 2025, Scala plans to commence construction on a new data centre cluster with 100 MW in critical capacity on the same campus.
“The magnitude of this project is compared to a few in the world and is the tip of the spear for a larger initiative that combines the demand of our customers for green data centres to support its ever-growing demand for cloud and AI with our vision for the country,” adds Marcos Peigo.
“Brazil, with its vast opportunities in the energy sector and ready-to-go transmission grid, is uniquely poised to be among the winners in the AI/ML race. Scala, the same way we understood ahead of others in the region the impact of the pandemic in the digital infrastructure demand, took a pioneer and bold step again in enabling the development of AI in Brazil.”
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