3E Eng. was hired to commission a new HV/MV electrical substation located in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. This substation belongs to the GPU Atlantic division of GPU One, a Canadian firm specializing in high-performance computing equipment hosting. A temporary electrical substation (69kV / 13.8kV) had already been in operation for several months. Meanwhile, the permanent substation (138kV / 13.8kV), the main switchgear, and an IT infrastructure building were under construction during 2020. The tasks entrusted to 3E were as follows:

• Analysis of single-line diagrams;
• Creation of a procedure for energizing the new high-voltage substation, the new switchgear, and the IT infrastructure buildings;
• Modification of single-line diagrams in favor of simplified versions to be displayed in the various switchgear on site;
• Supervision of on-site work during the decommissioning of the temporary substation, shutdown work, and start-up of the new substation during the power outage.
• The power-up was carried out jointly with various stakeholders, primarily NB Power, New Brunswick’s public electricity provider.

GPU One’s facilities in Grand Falls include a 50 MW substation and two data centers. This site also has the space, electrical capacity, and materials to continue growing within the existing infrastructure.