Dedicated On-Site Generation

Gas Turbine Power Islands for Data Centres

Dependable, dedicated power for data centre campuses in Malaysia and Southeast Asia — built around refurbished and zero-hour gas turbine packages that can be delivered in a fraction of the lead time quoted for new units.

  1. 01 The opportunity
  2. 02 What is a power island?
  3. 03 Understanding N+1
  4. 04 Pre-owned turbine solutions
  5. 05 Project development
01

The opportunity

Across Malaysia, power has moved from a procurement line item to the critical path of data centre development. We build the generating plant that takes it off that critical path.

The question is rarely whether electricity exists nationally. It is whether firm capacity reaches a particular site, at the right voltage, on the date the business case depends on — and transmission access varies enormously from one location to the next.

A dedicated power island is worth evaluating when

See how we source and package turbines

Our delivered record in rotating plant

62
Turbine & generator projects
13
Power stations served
20
Client organisations
1999
Operating since
02

What is a power island?

A power island is a self-contained generating plant built on or beside the data centre campus, sized to the facility it serves. It supplies the site directly rather than exporting to the network, and can run islanded, in parallel with the grid, or as a bridge until the permanent connection is energised.

Power island system overview Fuel supply feeds gas turbine generating units, which feed medium voltage switchgear and protection, which supplies the data centre electrical system. Plant control and SCADA oversees the turbines and switchgear. Battery energy storage and an optional utility grid connection both tie into the switchgear. Plant control & SCADA Load sharing · synchronising · protection logic Fuel supply Natural gas, LNG or dual-fuel Gas turbine generating units MV switchgear Step-up transformers, protection & metering Data centre electrical Main switchboard · UPS · PDU · IT and cooling load Battery storage Ramp support, ride- through, black-start Utility grid connection Optional — parallel operation, standby or future transition Fuel Generation Distribution Critical load
Indicative arrangement. Final topology depends on site layout, fuel availability, voltage level and the redundancy standard the facility is designed to.
Generation

Gas turbine units

Multiple generating sets sized so the plant meets full site load with one unit out of service. Running several smaller units rather than one large machine is what makes redundancy affordable.

Stability

Battery energy storage

Turbines handle sustained load well but ramp comparatively slowly. Batteries absorb step changes, ride through short disturbances and can black-start the island after a total loss of supply.

Control

Switchgear and controls

Medium voltage switchgear, protection and a plant control system that shares load across units, synchronises machines and manages transfer between island and parallel operation.

03

Understanding N+1

N is the number of generating units required to carry the site’s design load. +1 is one additional unit beyond that. The plant is built so that losing any single unit — to a fault, or to planned maintenance — leaves the remaining machines able to carry the full load with nothing shed.

N+1 redundancy with five generating units In normal operation four of five units carry the site load and one is held in reserve, with load served at one hundred per cent. When one unit is unavailable, the remaining four carry the full load and the site is still served at one hundred per cent, but with no spare unit remaining. Normal operation — four units carry the load, one held in reserve Unit 1Running25% load Unit 2Running25% load Unit 3Running25% load Unit 4Running25% load Unit 5ReserveAvailable Site load served: 100% One unit unavailable — the remaining four carry full load Unit 1Running25% load Unit 2Running25% load Unit 3OfflineFault or maintenance Unit 4Running25% load Unit 5Running25% load Site load served: 100% No load shed — but the plant is now running without a spare unit until Unit 3 returns to service.
Five-unit illustration. Four units are required for design load, so the plant is built with five.

Why it matters commercially

Colocation and hyperscale contracts are written around availability commitments. A Tier IV facility targets 99.995% availability — under 26 minutes of unplanned downtime a year. Single-unit generation cannot underwrite that.

Maintenance without derating

Gas turbines need scheduled combustion, hot gas path and major inspections. With N+1 these can be taken during normal operation instead of being deferred or requiring the site to buy in replacement power.

The cost of redundancy

Redundancy is an overbuild, and it is not free — capital cost rises with the spare unit. Lower-cost refurbished machines change that calculation materially, which is where equipment sourcing becomes a commercial lever rather than a procurement detail.

04

Pre-owned turbine solutions

New gas turbines in some frame classes have been quoted at lead times approaching five years. For a data centre programme measured in quarters, that is not a schedule — it is a different project. Sourcing, refurbishing and repackaging proven machines is how that gap closes.

01

Equipment sourcing

Identifying available units in the international market against your capacity, frame class, fuel and site constraints — including machines released from decommissioned or repowered plant.

02

Technical inspection

Condition assessment before commitment: borescope inspection, running hours and starts history, NDT, generator testing and partial discharge assessment, and review of the maintenance record.

03

Refurbishment

Hot gas path and combustion parts refurbishment, rotor rewinding, stator work, bearing and shaft machining, and controls upgrades — restoring a machine to a defined zero-hour condition.

04

Packaging

Integration of the refurbished machine into a new package: enclosure, auxiliaries, air intake and filtration, fuel skid, generator and control system, built for the site’s ambient and layout conditions.

05

Integration partnerships

Working alongside the EPC contractor, electrical consultant and data centre operator so the power island ties correctly into switchgear, protection, controls and the facility’s own redundancy scheme.

06

Lifecycle support

Scheduled inspections, spare parts supply, condition monitoring and overhaul planning over the life of the plant — the service work that makes up the majority of our delivered project record.

Gas turbine rotor with blade rows during overhaul

Built on an existing service record

This is not a new line of business for us. Gas turbine and generator work accounts for the largest share of our delivered projects — overhauls, rotor rewinding, partial discharge monitoring, hot gas path inspection and parts refurbishment carried out on live plant at thirteen power stations across Malaysia.

That work spans heavy-duty gas turbine and generator fleets from the major international OEMs, for clients including Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Powertek, Pahlawan Power, Panglima Power and Kapar Energy Ventures.

See the generation project record
05

Project development and enquiry

Every power island is sized to a specific site. If you are developing a data centre campus and assessing on-site generation, these are the four things we need in order to say something useful.

Capacity requirement

IT load and total site load in MW, the redundancy standard you are designing to, and whether capacity is needed in one step or in phases.

Target commissioning date

When power is needed on site, and whether this is permanent generation or bridging power pending a grid connection.

Fuel availability

Gas supply at or near the site, pipeline capacity and pressure, LNG options, and whether dual-fuel or liquid backup is required.

Site and grid context

Location, available footprint, intended voltage level, and the status of any utility connection application already in progress.

Discuss a power island for your site

Send us your capacity requirement and target date, and we will come back on feasible turbine packages.

digital@wawasanutama.my