Data Center Facility Project Highlights

Author: Saket Karajgikar and Karl Rabe, Co-Leads, OCP Data Center Facilities Collection: 2025 OCP Global Summit - Data Center Facility

Summary

This session provides a comprehensive overview of all active and newly launched work streams within the OCP Data Center Facilities (DCF) group as of the 2025 Global Summit. Co-leads Saket Karajgikar and Karl Rabe walk through seven major sub-projects: the OCP Ready Data Center Recognition Program (15 facilities certified since the 2024 summit), DC Automation (robotics for manipulation, media management, material movement, and remote inspection led by Meta, Microsoft, and Google since 2023), the OCP Modular Data Center Group (five MDC specifications published at 90, 90, 300, 350 LC, and 180 kW), DCF Sustainability (three sub-workstreams on heat/energy/water, construction emissions reduction, and clean backup power), the Modular TCS (Technology Cooling System) Workstream (white paper in review covering modular design, pipe material selection, CDU performance, and reliability), and two newly announced sub-projects: Power (covering BESS, SST, HVDC with co-leads from Nvidia, Microsoft, and Meta) and CDUs (a joint DCF and Cooling Environments collaboration).

The presentation emphasizes that the transition from megawatt to gigawatt-scale data centers is driving fundamental changes across all facility infrastructure domains. The DCF group holds monthly community calls on the third Wednesday of every month at 10:30 AM ET and actively seeks new participants. Key leadership includes steering committee representative Madhu Iyengar, with project leads Karl Rabe, Scott Sharp, Vivek Prasad, and Saket Karajgikar. The session serves as a roadmap for industry engagement, highlighting where specifications are mature, where white papers are in review, and where new collaborative efforts are urgently needed -- particularly in power architecture (BESS, SST, HVDC) and CDU standardization.