Datacenter Leaders Award 2010 winner Tissat has received a Tier IV rating by the Uptime Institute for its Walhalla data center in Valencia, due to open in July this year.

Tissat won the Leaders Award for Innovation in the Medium Data Center for the facility, which has an efficient design following the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres.

It uses cogeneration and hydrogen fuel cells and was created to meet Tier-IV standards for resilience and reliability.

Its free cooling equipment can be deployed depending on the required temperature levels at the data center.

Datacenter Leaders Award judge Chris Flanagan said the design focuses on energy efficiency, and as part of the EU Code of Conduct it was required to lead change in energy efficiency practices.

"Tissat Walhalla's design goes beyond the approach of purely addressing the PUE of the data center," Flanagan said.

Tissat general manager Manuel Escu├¡n told DatacenterDynamic's Madrid office that its energy efficiency design also has a more practical pull ÔÇô cost reduction. He said in Spain energy prices can be double those seen in the US and by using integrated facilities management, IT, virtualization and automation, the 500 sq m phase 1 data center can bring down running and staff costs, with only 50 people required to run it.

He said this has means Tissat can offer Tier IV services at a Tier II price.

It was not all smooth sailing for Tissat. The use of tri-generation caused some doubt in the Uptime Institute circles, according to Escuín.

"The most difficult step was to convince the Uptime Institute of the viability of the project," Escudero said. "The first response was that the data center was not homologous and that it was difficult to develop tri-generation."

The data center has a high power density of 6,500 watts per rack. Stage two of the data center will include two rooms at 500 sq m each.