Design for 50°C, not an average day
Heat-rejection plant, generator derating and electrical room cooling all have to be sized for Riyadh's summer peak. Equipment that is rated for a temperate climate loses capacity exactly when the load is highest.
Data halls, enterprise server rooms and edge facilities in Riyadh — the building and the mission-critical power, cooling and fire systems inside it, delivered by one contractor.
A data center is mostly MEP. The structure and envelope matter, but most of the cost and nearly all of the risk sit in the power chain, the cooling and the systems that monitor them. Dar Anan delivers both halves under one contract: the civil and structural works, and the medium-voltage power, generators, UPS, cooling and fire protection installed and commissioned by our own MEP team.
We build new data halls and fit out existing buildings for colocation operators, enterprises and public-sector owners across Riyadh and Saudi Arabia, working to the design consultant's drawings and the operator's standards. The result is one programme, one coordinated set of shop drawings, and one team accountable through to integrated systems testing.
Whether the design calls for N+1 cooling in an enterprise room or concurrently maintainable 2N power paths in a colocation hall, the redundancy only exists if it is built and tested that way. Separate routes for A and B power, isolation that lets one path be maintained while the other carries the load, and controls that switch over correctly under a real failure are all checked during commissioning, not assumed.
For the engineering detail, see our guide to data center MEP in Saudi Arabia, and for how systems are proven before handover, MEP testing and commissioning in Riyadh. Our wider MEP contracting and industrial construction services cover the surrounding buildings and plant.
Structure for heavy rack and plant loads, insulated and dust-sealed envelope, raised floors or slab-on-grade, hot or cold aisle containment, and physical security.
Medium-voltage switchgear, transformers, standby generators and fuel systems, UPS and batteries, busway and PDUs, and earthing and bonding.
Chilled-water plant, CRAH and CRAC units, in-row cooling, and liquid-cooling infrastructure, sized for Riyadh's summer peak and protected from dust.
Very early warning aspirating smoke detection, clean-agent or inert-gas suppression in data halls, pre-action sprinklers, and Civil Defence approvals.
BMS for mechanical plant, EPMS for the power chain, leak detection, and integration with the operator's DCIM platform.
Staged commissioning from factory witness tests to integrated systems testing with load banks, plus as-built drawings, O&M manuals and operator training.
On many data center projects the general contractor and the MEP contractor are separate firms, and the interfaces between them are where programmes slip. With civil, structural and MEP under one roof, coordination happens on our drawings before it reaches site.
Generators, transformers, switchgear, UPS and chillers are procured against the programme from the design freeze.
Combined services drawings and clash detection for cable trays, busway, pipework and containment before installation.
Shell, core infrastructure and data halls delivered in phases, so capacity comes online as the operator needs it.
From design review to integrated systems testing.
We review the consultant's design for buildability, confirm site power and water capacity, and flag long-lead items and utility timelines.
Coordinated shop drawings and submittals are approved, and critical equipment is ordered with factory witness tests scheduled.
Civil and structural works, envelope, then MEP installation in clean conditions, with dust control stepping up as the data halls near completion.
Installation checks, start-up, functional tests and integrated systems testing under load, witnessed by the consultant and commissioning agent.
As-built drawings, O&M manuals, training for the operations team, and a defects liability period.
Data center standards are global. The climate, the water and the utility process here are not.
Heat-rejection plant, generator derating and electrical room cooling all have to be sized for Riyadh's summer peak. Equipment that is rated for a temperate climate loses capacity exactly when the load is highest.
Sand and fine dust affect condensers, generator radiators, air intakes and filtration. Intake positions, filter stages and maintenance access are designed for local dust loading from the start.
Evaporative cooling uses a lot of water. Air-cooled and closed-loop options, water treatment and on-site storage are weighed against energy use early, because the choice changes the plant room and the site layout.
Medium-voltage supply from the Saudi Electricity Company, substation space and capacity confirmation need to start early. A finished data hall without power is the most expensive building on the site.
Outdoor work is restricted from 12:00 to 15:00 between 15 June and 15 September. Roof plant, external generators and yard works are sequenced around it.
High-density AI and GPU racks push beyond what air cooling handles well. Space, structure and pipework for direct-to-chip liquid cooling are easier to provide at construction stage than to retrofit.
Send us the design or the brief, and we will come back with a buildability review, a programme and a proposal.
Engineering, commissioning and procurement guides for mission-critical facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Data center MEP in Saudi Arabia: N+1 vs 2N redundancy, cooling for 50°C Riyadh summers, UPS and generator chains, and L1–L5 commissioning explained.
Read the guide →MEP testing and commissioning in Riyadh: L1–L5 levels, tests by system, Civil Defence witnessing and the handover documents owners should demand.
Read the guide →MEP design consultant or MEP contractor in Riyadh? Who does what, from load calculations to as-builts, and when design-and-build beats design-bid-build.
Read the guide →Seven criteria for selecting an MEP contractor in Riyadh — covering SCA classification, SEC registration, design capability, BIM, commissioning, and red flags to avoid.
Read the guide →What owners and operators ask before appointing a data center contractor in Saudi Arabia.
The building or data hall itself — structure, envelope, raised floor or slab-on-grade, containment and security — and the mission-critical MEP that makes it work: medium-voltage supply, transformers, generators and fuel, UPS and power distribution, cooling plant and air or liquid distribution, fire detection and suppression, and the monitoring systems that tie them together. It ends with staged commissioning up to integrated systems testing.
Yes. Edge sites, enterprise server rooms and colocation halls are often built inside existing industrial or commercial buildings. The structure is checked for floor loading and roof plant, the envelope is upgraded for heat and dust, and the power and cooling capacity of the site is confirmed before design is fixed.
That is a business decision about how much downtime you can accept, not a construction decision. N+1 cooling and power is common for enterprise rooms; concurrently maintainable (Tier III-style) designs with 2N power paths are common for colocation. We build to the redundancy your design consultant and operator specify, and we explain the cost and programme effect of each option.
By designing plant for summer peak ambient temperatures approaching 50°C rather than an average day, specifying heat-rejection equipment rated for those conditions, protecting intakes and condensers from dust, and testing cooling performance under real summer load before handover.
Long-lead equipment usually sets the date: generators, transformers, medium-voltage switchgear, UPS systems and chillers can take many months to manufacture and deliver, and the utility connection has its own timeline. Many operators build in phases, completing the shell and core infrastructure first and fitting out data halls as demand grows.
Yes. Most data centers are designed by a specialist consultant to the operator's standards. We deliver to that design, produce coordinated shop drawings, manage submittals and procurement, and run commissioning with the consultant and any independent commissioning agent.
Tell us about the facility. We'll review the design, confirm the programme and send a detailed proposal — no obligation.