Shabna Hayes is a chartered electrical engineer with a rich background in technical fields, starting with her education in South Africa to her impactful roles in the UK. Shabna’s wealth of experience encompasses comprehensive mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP), civil, structural and architectural solutions. She is also a dedicated mentor and advocate for diversity and inclusion in the engineering field, actively participating in diversity and inclusion programs to inspire the next generation of engineers.

Tell us a bit about yourself – your role and career journey.

From a young age, I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in a technical field. At school in South Africa, I focused on technical drawing and electronics, reflecting my passion for engineering.  I graduated with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and have a higher national diploma in Power Engineering.

After completing my studies, I joined KKA Consulting Engineers, where I learned the fundamentals of building services engineering. Moving to the UK, I spent nine years at Atkins, working on projects for BT and Crossrail, and also the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games for three years. I then joined WSP, focusing on data center projects.  I’ve been with ArchTam for the last five and a half years, where I’ve delivered multiple data center projects for many major global hyperscale clients.

I am part of ArchTam’s technical practice network and mentoring programs, working closely with junior engineers, to provide guidance and support. I collaborate with our training teams to ensure we offer the best possible technical training opportunities for our engineering graduates. I am a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, actively championing gender equality and equity through “She Builds”, Women’s Engineering Society (WES) and Infrastructure Masons (IMason), which promote women in engineering, construction and digital roles.

Talk to us about a technology or data center project that has impacted or been a major highlight of your career. How is it solving the challenges and issues our clients and communities are facing today?

One major highlight of my career was delivering a hyperscale data center for a global tech client. The complex project required adapting a standardized design to meet local codes and regulations across multiple countries. The key challenges included managing vendor engagement for critical equipment and ensuring a modular design that allowed for incremental expansion without disrupting operations. Using this approach allows for our clients to scale their data centers quickly to meet growing demands.

The project was also a great example of ArchTam’s strengths in communication and global collaboration. Our team comprised experts from United Kingdom and Ireland, South Africa, India, and the U.S. to deliver comprehensive MEP, civil, structural, and architectural solutions for our client. This project not only enabled us to meet our client’s needs but also allowed us to demonstrate how modular data center designs can efficiently support rapid growth and technological advancements, addressing the evolving demands of our clients and communities.

How do you manage the balance between energy efficiency and maintaining high performance when it comes to data centers?

Balancing energy efficiency with high performance in data centers is challenging due to their inherent high-power consumption. We achieve this through several key strategies. We focus on efficient cooling systems to keep power usage effectiveness low. During site selection, we consider the availability of resources like electricity and water too so that strategies for zero generators and optimum cooling solutions can be provided.

We also implement waste heat recovery systems, repurposing the heat generated to warm nearby homes and facilities, thus improving overall energy efficiency. Integrating renewable energy sources where possible further supports sustainability and reduces the carbon footprint.

Higher-performing data centers naturally use more electricity, so it’s crucial to minimize mechanical cooling to maintain efficiency. Our goal is to ensure that any additional power consumption is balanced with efficient cooling solutions. By focusing on these strategies, we help our clients achieve high performance while minimizing cooling expenses and total operational costs.

What are the most significant trends and technological advancements currently shaping the data center industry?

The biggest trend shaping the data center industry today is the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This technology is experiencing astronomical growth and is a major driver of change with a very steep, upward trajectory. As AI becomes is becoming more integrated into business operations, the demand for data processing power is increasing significantly. This results in processing racks now requiring higher power, leading to a substantial increase in kilowatts per rack.

We understand that for our clients with existing data centers to be able to accommodate this increased demand associated with AI, the infrastructure supporting data centers must also expand. This includes integrating potentially larger transformers and more robust power solutions to ensure that the additional space can be accommodated within the existing building footprint. These upgrades are necessary to handle the increased power needs brought on by AI. The consideration of the overall plant area necessitates careful planning to ensure that existing data centers can meet these new requirements.

For new data centers, this means going back to the drawing board to design facilities that can handle future AI demands. For existing data centers, it’s about finding ways to optimize and increase power output without limited expansion of the physical footprint. The challenge lies in the many unknowns surrounding AI’s future needs, making it extremely difficult for clients to plan and invest with certainty. AI is significantly impacting data center design and infrastructure, requiring both new and existing facilities to adapt to its growing demands. Embracing these advancements will be crucial for maintaining competitiveness and meeting the evolving needs of the digital age.

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Felix Cox joined ArchTam in 2018 as a graduate mechanical engineer in our residential buildings team, before becoming an incorporated engineer (MCIBSE) and an UPTIME Accredited Tier designer in the data center team. His responsibilities include designing resilient cooling systems for data centers, overseeing installation and commissioning of data center projects through the construction phase and optimizing energy efficiency in data center designs.

Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry.

I have always loved taking things apart to understand how they work, and then putting them back together – things like coffee machines, bikes, dishwashers and washing machines, to name a few. I have also always had a strong interest in sustainability, so I wanted a career where I could make a positive impact. 

I have taken a fairly unconventional route into engineering. At 18, I chose a jazz clarinet scholarship at Trinity College over Mathematics at Manchester University. Throughout this period, I continued to nourish my interest in physical problem solving and mathematics. After years as a musician and instrumental teacher, I retrained for A-Levels in physics and math, earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Queen Mary University of London in 2015. This has worked out brilliantly. I have loved every minute of learning about engineering and working as an engineer. 

Now is a very exciting time to be working in the data centre sector. We are rapidly moving towards a more digitally focused society, and this means digital infrastructure is also rapidly expanding. There are cutting-edge developments in the technology available to us and we are right at the forefront of this in the mechanical design team in the UK. Data centers are particularly interesting to me from a mechanical point of view because they are technically challenging. The cooling systems which support the critical IT must be resilient to equipment failure, able to withstand power and water outage, and above all, they must be energy efficient.  

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why? 

My favorite ArchTam project is the first major hyperscale data center I have worked on in Spain. It has been a great experience to see the project go from initial appointment, undertaking our engineering calculations and modelling all the mechanical systems in Revit, to seeing equipment being delivered to site, installing our design, and attending factory tests for the equipment we have specified to verify that it meets the design requirements.  

We worked very closely with a strong MEP team in Spain on the delivery of this project. I have also had the opportunity to travel and forge relationships with some of our Spanish colleagues. It is a good example of how we can leverage our expertise across different regions to offer something unique to our clients. 

We designed a direct air-cooled solution for this data centre. Large air handling units pull in air directly from outside to provide cooling to the critical IT. Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) – the ratio of total facility energy (including factors such as cooling and lighting) to the IT equipment energy – is the measure of data centre efficiency. For this project, we were able to achieve a low PUE of around 1.2, improving energy efficiency by reducing energy use. 

There are major challenges associated with direct air-cooled data centre projects. Data halls must be kept within a close temperature and humidity range – and kept very clean. To that end, we conducted local air quality testing. The results indicated relatively high air corrosivity, likely caused by dust and debris from a nearby quarry and road. To solve this, we installed a special carbon filtration system on each air handling unit to ensure that servers are not compromised. 

We spent a lot of time meticulously modelling the whole project in 3D using Revit. It has been a good experience to see the 3D Revit model being built on site. It all looks a lot bigger in real life! 

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community. 

Another project I am proud of is one based in Finland. Many Nordic countries use district heat networks as an efficient way of providing heat to towns and cities. Data centres are large producers of heat, which is typically exhausted to the atmosphere and essentially wasted. For this project, we worked with the local district heat network provider to design a cutting-edge and innovative project which repurposes low-grade and low-carbon heat from our data centre to provide heating and hot water to the local community. 

The existing heat network infrastructure comprises approximately 900 kilometers of underground pipes, facilitating heat distribution to around 250,000 users in the surrounding cities. It is estimated that the data center waste heat recovery scheme will reduce carbon emissions by up to 400,000 tons of CO2 per year – the largest single waste heat recovery system by a hyperscale provider in Europe.  

It is also great to see that waste heat recovery schemes are now being looked at in the UK. As they become more widely adapted across Europe, our team is able to leverage the knowledge and experience gained to position ourselves to deliver these projects. 

Share a piece of career advice.

Maintaining a hunger and appetite for learning has served me well in my career. 

In the engineering field, each new piece of knowledge gained contributes to your problem-solving capabilities and enhances the quality of solutions you can provide. It helps you to stay relevant and consistently refine your skills, allowing you to meet the evolving demands of the industry. The engineering world is constantly changing, and staying curious helps you keep up with the latest developments. Being humble and admitting there’s always so much more to learn keeps you flexible and open to different ways of doing things. 

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Anirban Basak joined ArchTam over a decade ago in 2012. He is an Uptime Accredited Tier Designer for our data center team in London and is focused on data centers and mission critical projects in the sector. He is responsible for designing resilient systems such as electrical systems, life safety and ancillary services and EPMS monitoring topology, and optimizing energy efficiency in data center design. This includes designating benchmarks and overseeing the installation and commissioning of projects through construction phases.

Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry.

A career in engineering always felt to be on the cards for me, since I come from a family of engineers. However, most of my family has worked in civil and mechanical engineering, so my decision to focus on electrical engineering was going against the mould. From a young age, I have enjoyed problem-solving and taking apart and rebuilding things like circuit boards to understand how they work. 

This led to me pursuing a degree in electrical engineering at university. After obtaining my master’s degree, I decided to focus on implementation rather than research and development. I was really interested in making designs work well.  

Working in the data centre field was a natural progression in my career, as it provides the technical challenge that I thrive on and the opportunity to work on more intense engineering aspects within the mission critical sector.  

As most engineers will appreciate, the sector provides the opportunity to implement engineering-first principles in developing appropriate bespoke solutions. It also tests your problem-solving skills.

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why? 

One of the best things about working at ArchTam is the opportunity to work on global projects, ensuring a diverse and varied professional experience.  

Our data centre team is truly a global operation. Through ArchTam’s Centres of Excellence program, I have had the opportunity to work closely with colleagues in India, Ireland, Romania, Spain, Germany, Greece and South Africa who bring their own wealth of knowledge and expertise. Our Centres of Excellence allow us to share knowledge and best practice to inform projects around the world. This ensures our designs are both cutting edge, and consistent throughout the region. 

My favorite projects include major hyperscale projects in the Nordics, Iberia and South Asia. These projects provide the opportunity to tackle the issue of data management and storage specific to each country. Beyond the sheer scale and technological requirements that these projects entail, they provide the opportunity to work and travel internationally with a team that always supports knowledge sharing and curiosity.  

On these projects, I have worked with local design guidelines that differ from standard practice. This means you are on a very fast paced learning curve to get up to speed and you will need to accommodate for different impacts to your design. For example, your design needs to consider the local environmental conditions and guidelines set by the local code and you will need to coordinate with colleagues from various disciplines, such as civils, architecture and telecommunications. These projects also provide opportunities to engage with local manufacturers and vendors to ensure specification of the right materials.  

From a technical perspective, it was great to be able to contribute to projects with all these challenges while successfully meeting the design criteria, project deadlines and planning requirements. It has also been a good experience to see the model built on site after meticulously drafting the whole project in 3D using Revit. 

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community.  

Working within the data centre sector, you do feel you are positively impacting a worldwide challenge in terms of data management and storage.  

It can be challenging to tackle the transfer and use of the energy generated for these projects to address the issue of energy requirements for data centres. Designing and implementing a highly resilient electrical infrastructure entails the usage of an efficient system that is highly sustainable, including improving the overall efficiency and decreasing the energy quotient to 1.0, thereby helping to reduce the power consumption and energy costs. The opportunity to do this is what makes working in this sector feel important and worthwhile. 

You can also directly see how our work is positively impacting the communities in which we are working. Adapting the usage of highly efficient generator engines with HVO100 fuel significantly reduces the nitrous oxide and carbon oxide emissions levels. It is a great example of how we are transforming and integrating new technologies which are at the forefront of engineering development.

Share a piece of career advice.

Working within the mission critical sector provides the opportunity to work with incredibly inspiring like-minded colleagues who all value the detail, diligence, complexity and specialist aspects of the work which sometimes others might not understand. My career advice would be: 

• Absorb as much information as possible. 
• Have patience. 
• Don’t get overwhelmed. 
• Be a sponge and put your problem solving and analytics skills to the best use. 

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