Air Consulting Services for CyrusOne, LLC's Data Centers
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Project Objective

CyrusOne, LLC (CyrusOne), the owner of numerous data center sites, needed assistance to determine if air permits were required for both new and existing data centers across the United States. The data centers are equipped with diesel-fired emergency generators to provide backup power to the data center in case of power failure. These emergency generators include belly tanks to store diesel fuel. New data center sites were ready to begin construction and obtaining an air permit (if required) was determined to be a critical path item to meet the project schedule. Sites were evaluated for diesel-fired emergency generator air permit requirements in Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia.

Geosyntec’s Scope of Services

For each site, Geosyntec obtained details including the size and rating of the generators, quantities of generators, fuel tanks, and auxiliary equipment. This information was used to assess federal and state regulatory applicability, taking into account the air permitting requirements for each data center site. For the sites where the data center required air permitting, Geosyntec prepared complete emission calculations, including criteria pollutants and hazardous air pollutants (or air toxics, if required). For some sites, the regulatory authority required a demonstration of best available control technology (BACT). In those cases, Geosyntec developed top-down BACT determinations for the specific generators in use. For sites that required an air quality impact analysis, modeling was conducted to demonstrate that the operations would not adversely impact ambient air quality.

After the state-specific permit applications were submitted (usually including a narrative, emission calculations, regulatory applicability assessment, forms, BACT analysis, and related information), Geosyntec maintained close contact with the regulatory agency to expedite issuance of the permit. Where a draft permit was issued, Geosyntec reviewed it and provided comments to the regulatory agency to streamline issuance of the final permit. After the final permit was issued, Geosyntec continued to support each site as necessary by addressing ongoing compliance items, including annual emission inventory reporting and compliance reporting.

Notable Accomplishments

Geosyntec’s dedicated internal team successfully obtained air permits for many CyrusOne Sites nationwide. Geosyntec applied lessons learned at previous data centers to our subsequent work helped us to expeditiously and cost-effectively obtain required permits. The collaboration of our internal team, our practitioners’ air permitting proficiency, and our state-specific experience, enabled Geosyntec to provide a high-level of service and meet the short timeframes CyrusOne’s construction schedule required.