In this context, tech companies, utilities and regulators are having to figure out how technology innovation and economic development are delivered, without unduly burdening other consumers through higher electric rates. This has come to a head in the Midwest, where a local utility and Big Tech firms are in a dispute before the State’s Public Service Commission to decide the electric pricing structure (or tariff) for data centers. The outcome of this dispute may serve as an indicator of things to come across the U.S.

Data centers require significant amounts of reliable power for their operations. A large, hyperscale data center runs continuously and adds the equivalent of 400,000 electric vehicles to the power system¹. In its local service territory, the Midwest utility provider estimates that power needs will more than double by 2030 and thereafter increase nearly ten-fold if all interested data centers are developed. To provide this amount of power reliably, utilities must make significant investment in the power transmission and distribution infrastructure. The local utility states that billions of dollars in grid infrastructure are needed to meet the projected additional load for data centers in its service territory.

New electric infrastructure is paid for over time through the electricity rates of those customers that drive the infrastructure need. However, given the scale of power demand, the utility provider is proposing a new tariff specifically for data centers, to ensure long term commitments to the projected electricity demand. Without these commitments, the utility provider fears the demand may not materialize and the utility will be stranded with unnecessary and costly infrastructure upgrades which will need to be paid for by other customers.

Data centers currently fall under general tariffs for large industrial users. The newly proposed, industry-specific tariff is highly unusual. However, because the power demand is so great, the utility provider is seeking a data center tariff with longer contract terms, higher minimum demand charges and greater financial assurance provisions than required of other general customer classes.

The technology firms which own these data centers assert the approach is misguided and unfair. The tariff singles out one industry, rather than applying to all those with similar characteristics, such as loads and usage patterns. Moreover, these firms argue that the approach will stifle innovation and economic growth and will harm data-driven critical functions upon which society relies.

The foundational elements of this dispute are shown in the table below. Since the initial filing, the parties have closed the gap between their positions but remain committed to the fundamental principles underpinning their rationale. On the one hand, the utility is seeking to protect other customer classes and reduce unnecessary investment by ensuring longer term commitments. While on the hand, Big Tech is looking to establish tariffs that drive innovation and growth through the appropriate grid investments without individual industries being singled out.

The core of the dispute:

These negotiations between the utility, Big Tech firms and other rate payers could have historic ramifications:

• The resolution may set a precedent for other regions where there are similar issues involving data center development, power needs and infrastructure.
• This matter also highlights the growing tension between Big Tech and state regulators. Data center developers wield significant socio-economic and political influence, generating employment and using their data to underpin the operations of critical functions, such as hospitals.

As demand for data centers and accompanying power continue to increase exponentially, regulators will need to manage this growth in a manner that is sustainable and equitable for the data centers themselves, the utilities and infrastructure involved, as well as other ratepayers.

Finally, this debate also highlights the strategic importance of the power transmission and distribution grid. The power grid not only serves as the backbone of our everyday lives, but it is also the enabler of the energy transition. It connects not just data centers, but also heat pumps, electrolyzers (for green hydrogen production), electric vehicles, offshore wind and other technologies that will serve our energy needs of today and tomorrow.

What happens in the matter of this case will have strategic implications locally and nationally: signaling how utilities, regulators and large energy users may collaborate to meet the energy needs of the future.

¹IEA World Energy Outlook 2024 Launch Presentation

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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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Mylena Maximo is an architectural coordinator based in Brazil specializing in data center design. During her career at ArchTam, she has overseen the completion of four data centers and 14 logistics warehouses. Her design principles navigate challenges such as energy efficiency and environmental impact. Her approach to staying current with rapidly evolving technologies allows her to be adept at customizing solutions for our clients.

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

For as long as I can remember I’ve always been fascinated with buildings and had a desire to pursue a career in architecture. I graduated with a degree in architecture in 2013 and joined an engineering firm with an architectural division, which gave me a great opportunity to interact with lots of different teams regularly and contributed significantly to my growth as an architect.

I joined ArchTam in 2019 where I’m currently the architectural coordinator for ArchTam’s Buildings + Places business in Brazil. Over the last 10 years, I’ve been fortunate to work on a diverse range of projects, including schools, water parks, residential towers, corporate real estate, and more recently, data centers and logistic warehouses. I’ve overseen the completion of four data centers with a total capacity of 120 megawatt and 14 logistics warehouses which has helped me refine my professional journey tremendously.

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

The market and demand for data centers are rapidly growing.  On top of the intricacies of installations and equivalents in data centers, there is the complexity of the MEP requirements and the need for very meticulous coordination between Long Lead Equipment (LLE) in the initial design phases. On one particular data center project, I worked with a client who didn’t speak Portuguese. Initially I thought this would be a challenge and barrier, but it actually allowed me to be exposed to different global architectural practices and approaches and resulted in a really enriching experience.

Data centers play a crucial role in modern society, contributing significantly to community development in many ways. They facilitate digital transformation, support the development of new technologies like artificial intelligence, aid scientific research, and enhance community connectivity through improved access to information. It is rewarding to be part of a project that, when completed, will enable more efficient data handling and foster innovation.

What are the key considerations and challenges you take into account when designing a data center, particularly in terms of infrastructure, scalability and energy efficiency?

Designing data centers involves addressing challenges such as energy efficiency, water consumption, environmental impact, and data privacy. We need to ensure that the facilities are deployed responsibly and sustainably to the end users and communities. One key consideration throughout every data center project is the site selection phase, as the location of a data center can have a huge impact on the environment, costs and overall operation. We always consider factors like energy and water availability, climate, and potential for future expansion due to the growing demands of the market.

Here in Brazil, ArchTam is conducting audits to assess the technical, social and environmental impacts associated with data centers. As designers, we always make sure we stay up to date with the latest technologies and construction materials to ensure we provide optimal solutions, not only for our clients but also for the local communities to ensure that our data center designs minimize their environmental footprint.

How do you go about assessing the unique needs and goals of clients when beginning a new design project, especially in the context of hyperscale data centers or logistics warehouses?

We take a multifaceted approach to understanding and meeting our data center and logistics clients’ unique needs. Many types of hyperscale data centers are from outside Brazil, but we always ensure the prototypes align with Brazilian codes, even if there’s rigidity with the prototypes. We actively suggest engineering solutions aligned with the local Brazilian context and consider local challenges. For example, in our design for one data center in Brazil, we incorporated a rainwater collection system to reduce water wastage.

We don’t have a one size fits all solution for our clients — we customize solutions for them as technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning change and evolve so rapidly. The unpredictable nature of these technologies drives us to stay current with the latest updates in the market and share insights with the clients’ technical teams, ensuring our designs align with the industry needs of today and tomorrow.

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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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Luis Lopez is our technology market sector lead for Latin America. Luis has a wealth of experience in the construction and delivery of data centers across Latin America for some of the technology sector’s leading organizations. He worked on the first hyperscale data center in Mexico and the region’s Global Crossing Network — a complex project encompassing both undersea and land-based cables spanning the United States, Mexico, Panama, and various other South American countries.

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

I began my career in the telecoms industry in 1991 helping to build Mexico’s first fiber optic network for long-distance services. I started working at ArchTam four years ago, as a senior data center project manager, where I managed third-party projects and served as a client account manager for one of ArchTam’s major clients in the technology sector.

During the last year and a half, I have been working in-house for one of our clients managing their construction projects and as a technical consultant on the design of data centers. Over the last four years, I’ve worked on a total of nine data center projects in Mexico — three as a technical advisor focusing on design and construction administration and seven as a construction manager and customer representative.

Talk to us about a project that has impacted or been a major highlight of your career. How is it solving the challenges and issues many tech companies and communities are facing today?

A significant project that has been a highlight of my career is the recent hyperscale data center deployment in Queretaro, Mexico.

The immense scale of these data centers meant I had to manage three construction projects at the same time. Two of the projects were from one lease provider and one was from another, so that was really challenging to handle. Typically, each new data center project holds 4 megawatts as an initial phase, but this project required us to manage a total of 12 megawatts in one go across three different projects.

Another really interesting project I’ve had the opportunity to work on in my career was the Global Crossing Network — a complex project encompassing both undersea and land-based cables spanning the U.S., Mexico, Panama, and various other South American countries. I started as the first employee of Global Crossing Mexico and, in just three years, our small team of seven people had handled nearly $4.2 billion of projects across diverse networks, including undersea and terrestrial fiber optic systems.

As the project evolved, I transitioned to oversee the work as the construction and operation director in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, facing significant challenges including requests, negotiations and planning.

What are some of the unique challenges you are facing in designing/managing data center construction and how are you overcoming them?

One of the unique challenges I’ve faced working in the sector in Mexico was when we introduced a new data center facility concept that hadn’t been used country before. When ArchTam embarked on the project three years ago, we were pioneering the construction of hyperscale data centers in Mexico, now, there are about 12 of these types of data center projects in the area.

Dealing with new technology to support operations while maintaining a compressed schedule posed significant challenges. ArchTam’s role involved project management, which included coordinating, reviewing, and advising on project management and construction management for general contractors, lease providers, and our end client.

I leveraged my extensive experience of major construction projects, including airports, stadiums, and seaports, along with my history of managing large teams to address these challenges. These hyperscale projects involve substantial megawatt capacity, with initial phases ranging from 16 to 64 megawatts, and some will reach up to 70 megawatts. To put that in perspective, the combined power consumption of the upcoming data centers could be nearly twice that of Queretaro city, including the industrial area, which is one of the fastest growing in the country.

How is the digital evolution shaping data center construction management practices?

The digital evolution has significantly shaped construction management in the data center space. Cutting-edge technologies like 360-degree modeling and advanced AutoCAD extensions facilitate 3D modeling of buildings, aiding in project visualization, clash identification, space optimization, and progress tracking. They help us to ensure projects stay on schedule, within budget, and efficiently allocate resources.

In terms of data center construction management practices, the pandemic accelerated data consumption, leading to increased power demands worldwide, including in Mexico. The development of hyperscale data centers will provide better support for various industries and improve real-time processing and efficiency. These data centers are essentially the backbone of cloud services, which encompass the storage and processing of vast amounts of data. They also notably serve as backups for critical equipment, safeguarding businesses from catastrophic events.

Small data centers are strategically placed near industrial and financial hubs, serving as the edge and last-mile connectivity points. These data centers, linked to larger hyperscale facilities through high-speed connections, represent a revolutionary shift in IT processes and automation, extending beyond traditional financial clientele.

Many different clients and applications in real time processing are going to benefit from the development and delivery of these new types of data centers and I’m proud to be a part of bringing them to life.

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This week, we are highlighting a program manager for technology and data center projects, Adam Way, from our Buildings + Places business. Adam and his team used their skills to deliver an expedited, mid-pandemic add/move/change program to upgrade facilities for one of our logistics clients. Launched at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, the effort involved working simultaneously at over 60 sites in 26 states across the U.S.

A registered civil engineer with more than 20 years of experience, Adam works at the intersection of people and technology. His team spans all geographies and employs advanced yet simple technologies to deliver services ranging from site selection and due diligence through building prototyping, detailed design and operational overhauls.

He is well-versed in industrial site development engineering, general infrastructure and inter-company coordination. His team broke geographical and organizational barriers, tapping into expertise and resources from around the world to quickly stand up virtual and co-located teams of professionals to support this challenging, fast-tracked program.

Tell us about a project that has impacted or been a major highlight of your career?

It would have to be the 2020 multi-site logistics facility improvements for a global technology client, where we studied, planned and designed uniform upgrades at over 60 active facilities in a matter of weeks. The program was identified about four months before the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the U.S. and, keeping an eye on the global horizon, we knew we had to move fast and plan well.

We pushed both real and perceived boundaries with creative, responsible resource and pipeline management. The result was a geographically and culturally diverse project team with more in common than they knew they had at the onset. The lessons learned and values affirmed at this stage enabled us to quickly scale up a round-the-clock project team that included more than 600 ArchTam field technicians, engineers and architects from across the world. Our team was under contract and working in the field within a month.

As part of this project, my team and I evaluated delivery fleet electrification and incorporation of photovoltaic technologies, improved the working conditions for the client’s employees, phased the construction planning to minimize client’s operational downtime, maximize revenue and enhance customer service.

We also established a “project toolbox” of client-facing KPI trackers that allowed us to plan and execute the work in spite of the challenges presented by the pandemic. Throughout this project, we demonstrated that we can quickly form talented teams and have systems in place to collaborate and respond to our clients’ needs. In short, this program formed the identity that we have today.

What was a key challenge you/your team faced while working on this project? How did you solve it?

Executing a fieldwork-intensive program during the pandemic was a major challenge that we were able to turn into a major achievement. In March of 2020, we had dozens of people deployed in the field and suddenly the airports, restaurants and gas stations all shut down.

Our journey management, safety and contingency plans enabled us and our clients’ management teams to safeguard our employees and the project, making sound decisions based on risk, schedule and cost data in order to hit the standard. As a result, our employees remained safe in the field, knowing they knew they were supported by our Safety, Health & Environment (SH&E) officers, our human resources team and their own local business and operations leaders.

When the pandemic hit, we brought people home safely and were able to regroup. Within a few weeks, we formed a remobilization plan with the approval of ArchTam and client executives — and despite the global shutdown — we ultimately delivered a successful program.

How has ArchTam enabled you and your teams to cultivate the expertise needed to deliver the project — and future work like it?

ArchTam’s unique combination of reinvestment into our people and technology drives our team’s expertise and capabilities across geographies. As a firm, we sponsor specialized training, mentorship, and team building within and across the thousands of organizational possibilities, so that we all can thrive. The 2020 multi-site program is one of many examples of the success of this readiness.

I participated in the 2018-19 Lift Program, one of ArchTam’s executive readiness tracks and, coincidentally, our program group’s capstone for the year was a study in how to quickly assemble and mobilize our company’s major project teams amidst known and unknown headwinds — an example of firm-driven insight that proved to be fundamental in delivering the program for this logistics client.

Focusing on our core value of Innovate, our company also represents and develops digital solutions to address our clients’ legacy, current and future challenges. The availability of enterprise-level technology subscriptions such as Power BI, ArcGIS and Autodesk Construction Cloud also plays a big role in advancing our work.

High-powered design and quality automation tools, along with dashboards like SmartSheets and ArchTam in.Site^TM are part of our everyday workflows. This program, in fact, resulted in digital innovations that now drive quality workflows within our region and are being evaluated for standard adoption across ArchTam globally.

How has this experience shaped your approach to future work?

There’s a saying that “great leaders create more leaders, not followers.” Working on this logistics program really accelerated the careers of the team members who spoke up with their best ideas — and had the resourcefulness and initiative to make them work. Many have taken on lead roles in comparable and even exponentially larger programs. It’s brought a real can-do, no-blame culture across our teams.

Years later, we’re using these same core values to answer our technology clients’ toughest questions around regional trends, geopolitics, and lingering supply chain and corporate real estate issues, including a multi-geography prototyping and bridging documents design project for a first-of-kind data center fleet. These aren’t just designs, they’re reliable, repeatable solutions that hold their value and relevance throughout complex, end-to-end client organizations.

We triangulate across our own regional and global design and decision hubs to expedite knowledge and culture transfer, regardless of the project’s origin and location. The success of the logistics program helped us expand our design and engineering capabilities and advance knowledge share among developing teams across all our geographies. We train, support and empower teams to propagate into self-sustaining operations.

Maintaining and strengthening these internal relationships allows us to connect with other parts of our global business doing the same work and pair them with each other. It’s another way we provide best-in-class client support, and collaborate and innovate to deliver for our clients.

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This week, we are highlighting our Global Broadband Practice leader from our Buildings + Places Technology Solutions Group (TSG) and how he and his team used their skills to plan and recommend fiber-optic connectivity to unserved and underserved facilities, devices, homes and businesses across the entire state of Maine.

Eric and his team provide broadband solutions to a wide range of clients—electric cooperatives, local, county, and state agencies, global Tier 1 internet service providers, and emerging technology companies—all with different goals and aims. Whether he’s working with a community to expand broadband services or an electric cooperative to implement a smart grid initiative, his approach is collaborative and often cross-jurisdictional.

He and his team have helped design and architect connectivity for a smart corridor (“The Smartest Street in America”) for San Mateo County, California, which features air quality sensors and technologies to improve traffic, and pedestrian and bicycle safety; and a 2500-mile fiber-to-the-home network in Indiana and Cambria counties in Pennsylvania that is planned to serve 25,000 unserved and underserved homes together with a smart grid initiative for the area’s electric cooperative. In line with our Sustainable Legacies strategy, common themes in Eric’s projects are sustainability, resilience and improving social outcomes.

Tell us about Maine DOT’s fiber expansion strategy project and what led to it becoming a collaborative, statewide initiative?

I enjoy working on projects that involve a statewide footprint. Much of my background is in the public realm, so I also have a soft spot in my heart for projects that solve complex challenges for multiple public sector agencies at once.

On the Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) project, we helped two state entities with different missions join forces to make high speed connectivity accessible to the DOT and universally available for unserved and underserved residences and businesses in Maine.

This project started with a transportation corridor and evolved into a statewide initiative. MaineDOT was interested in expanding its intelligent transportation system (ITS) devices, so it needed to evaluate the feasibility of designing and installing its own fiber infrastructure.

A couple of examples of ITS technologies are traffic cameras, remote sensors and message boards to enhance infrastructure resiliency and expand Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure for smart traffic management. Since the DOT has historically used third-party data communication connectivity or wireless technologies to connect to the ITS devices and its own facilities, this is a first-of-its-kind project for them.

MaineDOT covers and is responsible for a large corridor footprint across the state and owns the public right-of-way, making it an ideal partner for the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA), who is planning for large-scale broadband rollouts. With a mission to “advance digital equity for all Mainers,” one of the MCA’s biggest challenges is finding the ideal corridors that traverse close enough to people living and working in rural parts of the state.

The MaineDOT-MCA working partnership provides an opportunity for the two organizations to blend their missions and integrate their resources and approaches to optimize public funds. They’ve collaborated with several other public sector agencies and private sector service providers throughout the life of the project. Through community engagement, they’ve been able to effectively plan and design for a statewide fiber expansion.

Since the two entities own little to no existing fiber, we walked them through the challenges, and pros and cons related to owning their own fiber-optic infrastructure. Then, we focused on how and where to expand broadband access to help set both entities up for success and align with the guidelines of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and its goal to ensure every American has access to reliable high-speed internet. MCA is now in the beginning stages of its plan to expand fiber-optic communications out to people and communities that face greater barriers to connectivity.

What was a key challenge you faced while working on this project? How did you solve it?

The key challenge was breaking down and quantifying where and how DOT and MCA should build this new infrastructure within Maine. We created a corridor prioritization tool to identify and visualize “Goldilocks corridors.” Goldilocks corridors are found within local and regional broadband zones that demonstrate the strongest need and highlight the biggest gaps in broadband service and availability. They also contain ideal site candidates in terms of federal funding and fiber optic connectivity.

The Goldilocks zones match and conform as the top Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program and agency prospects to serve existing or future transportation device locations, community anchor institutions (CAIs), and unserved and underserved households and businesses.

Pairing up the communities’ needs and the Goldilocks corridors for expanding broadband access to rural unserved households and businesses can improve the quality of life for citizens and foster economic development in towns and neighborhoods.

Using this concept and tool, we’ve helped MaineDOT and MCA find the “sweet spots,” and illustrate where available funding can serve the largest number of eligible devices, end users and CAIs along or next to those key corridors. CAIs play a crucial role in closing the “digital divide,” by expanding both broadband access and adoption in communities.

IoT connectivity provides smart traffic management, improves safety, mitigates sustainability challenges and enables more efficient resource management. Expanded fiber will also be key to future technologies such as Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) and electric vehicle charging stations of the future.

We also created a cost-benefit tool to assess public and private investments in connecting sites along these corridors. Using this cost-benefit tool we’ve been able to help DOT and MCA justify the dollars invested, quantify the investment, and understand the potential grant match percentages needed to execute a future project as well as understand the value of their right-of-way.

How has this experience shaped your approach to future work?

“Dig once” is what the industry calls using a single infrastructure project to satisfy many different infrastructure initiatives. A key takeaway of this project was our recommendation to Maine to form a statewide Broadband Working Group (BWG). The BWG can help facilitate partnerships with other agencies and find shared needs when it comes to planning broadband expansion across Goldilocks zones to help enable access to broadband services at the lowest possible shared cost.

A thoughtfully planned transportation project can coalesce agencies, facilitate partnerships, put into practice a “dig once” policy and drive broadband deployment in unserved and hard to reach areas of a state. Also, using digital tools to find the Goldilocks corridors and zones proved to be a fantastic way to crystallize an idea for expansion into a concrete and practical picture that clients can understand, quantify, promote and gain the most consensus for shared broadband adoption.

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