Dhana Dhakal 
KATHMANDU: Ncell, Nepal’s first private-sector mobile service operator, has launched a modern data center at Nakhu in Lalitpur. The company has put into operation the center with a full power backup that ensures resuming the supply immediately after the power outage.
After the earthquake of 2015, a ‘containerized’ data center was built in Nakhu, and a diesel plant was also placed in the building premises to manage electricity internally.
Adil Israr, technical head of Ncell the diesel plant resumes the essential service of power generation within a few seconds as soon as the supply of Nepal Electricity Authority’s feeder to the data center ceases to function.
“We have also placed a diesel plant on the premises of the technical building of the data center to solve the long-term problem of irregular power supply,” Israr said.
“When the electricity service of the transmission system is interrupted for four days, we have stored fuel from the diesel plant to supply electricity to the data center,” he added.
He said that an underground storage house has been built to store 50,000 liters of fuel for four days.
According to Ncell, during the interruption of the service of the national system, within 57 seconds, the diesel plant was automatically operated and electricity was supplied to the technical building of the data center.
There are switching devices in the power room along with the power supply unit and two UPS of 1000 KV in the center to monitor the AC supply of the data center.
Only the battery is kept in a separate compartment. There are three data cells and a monitoring room that have been kept to monitor the data center 24 hours a day.
Keeping in mind the security of the data center, 104 cameras have been installed inside and outside the building. It has been arranged for 24-hour surveillance by technicians from the monitoring room. There is a server room on the upper floor of the building.
The technical building where the data center is located is also earthquake resistant. Ncell has established a data center building with an investment of more than Rs 2 billion. “Ncell realized that many records were not safe due to the earthquake, and built a building that can withstand a devastating earthquake of up to nine on the Richter scale,” said Israr.
