Saving money is the point of a plan by Gov. Dan McKee to relocate a handful of state offices to an East Providence office complex up for sale by Citizens Bank.
But a state data center located in one of those offices can’t wait for a new home — the air conditioning setup that keeps the servers cool and functioning needs to be upgraded much sooner. And it won’t come cheap.
A fiscal 2026 budget presentation from January cited the total cost of HVAC repairs as upwards of $10 million, supporting McKee’s idea to consolidate the data center and other state offices at 115 Tripps Lane, Riverside. A request for quotes posted to the state’s procurement portal on Feb. 12 appears to be less extensive, with a maximum cost of $600,000.
“Any proposed relocation of the servers will take a substantial amount of time, and because servers need to be kept at optimal operating temperatures, the State cannot defer maintenance,” Karen Greco, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Administration (DOA) said in an email.
Work on the existing server setup would ideally start next month, according to the dates in the request for quotes. The request is open through March 12 and is asking contractors to replace the computer room air conditioners at the state-owned office building located at 50 Service Ave., Warwick.
There are four AC units in the data center at the two-story Warwick building, which the state purchased in 2010. The building is over 83,000 square feet large and also houses office space for the state Treasury, the Department of Public Safety and the Division of Enterprise Technology Strategy and Services, which is part of DOA and manages information technology across multiple state agencies. The building also contains a scanning center used by the Department of Human Services.
But the AC units are at the end of their life cycle, Greco said, and need to be replaced. Computer room air conditioners last on average about 15 years, according to an analysis by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Greco added in a follow-up email that the $600,000 budget is only part of the multimillion capital request for the Warwick building described in the governor’s budget.
“The full amount requested would go to upgrading the HVAC system throughout the entire building, replacing the roof, and other maintenance items detailed in the budget,” Greco said, but that this “remaining work is contingent on the State’s decision to remain at 50 Service.”
Server rooms require careful temperature control, as the machines generate lots of heat but also need to be protected from excessively cold or hot climates to function properly. Too much humidity or dryness can damage the machines. Cooling costs can account for a quarter or more of a data center’s energy bill, according to 2016 guidance from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. In the past two decades, data centers have become on average a few degrees warmer as a means of mitigating excessive cooling costs.
The East Providence building was built in 1979 and is over 210,000 square feet, offering the opportunity for the state to consolidate multiple operations and their corresponding leasing costs, according to the governor’s budget. The building would accommodate up to 800 state workers and a new, modernized data center.
Should the servers ultimately migrate to a new home at the Tripps Lane site, “The State will then determine the best use case for 50 Service Avenue,” Greco said.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
