SK C&C Data Center Was Vulnerable to Fire from the Design Stage

Damage to Kakao electric cables on ceiling due to lithium battery fire
Core facilities including generator room, UPS room, and battery room concentrated on one floor

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] One of the causes of the fire at SK C&C's Pangyo Data Center has been pointed out as an unusual data center design, including the dense arrangement of core facilities and insufficient separation of wiring.

According to the fire authorities and Kakao on the 21st, the main cable connecting to Kakao's servers was located on the ceiling directly above the area where lithium-ion batteries, known to be the source of the fire, were stored. The lithium battery fire damaged these wiring cables, causing a significant number of Kakao servers to go down. The data center design itself, which installed wiring cables directly above the battery storage, has been criticized as problematic.

Kakao also views this wiring damage as a major cause of the server outage. Hong Eun-taek, CEO of Kakao, said, "It seems the UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) also caught fire as the lithium batteries burned. The fire was on the ceiling, where the wiring cables connected to Kakao servers were located. As a result, thousands of servers lost power," adding, "It appears this kind of accident was not anticipated."

Additionally, the fact that all the core facilities necessary to operate the servers were densely concentrated on the same floor is considered a primary cause of this incident. The data center's basement level 3, where the fire occurred, houses the main power supply, generator room, UPS room, and battery room.

Typically, these facilities are separated by floors or isolated to ensure server operation during disasters such as fires or floods. An industry insider explained, "It is common practice to design the electrical room, UPS room, and battery room on different floors to prevent large-scale fires," adding, "Each facility should be separated to eliminate risk factors."

The Kakao 1st Data Center currently under construction in Ansan is also designed with the UPS room and battery room separated by fire-resistant partitions rather than being placed in the same space. This setup includes backup systems to ensure that even if a fire breaks out in the battery room, the other facilities continue to operate without issues.

The concentration of these key facilities in one place is closely related to legal use controversies that arose when the building was constructed in 2011. At that time, competitor LG Uplus raised concerns with the Gyeonggi Provincial Government, claiming that SK C&C had purchased the building site as a general research land at a low price but was effectively using it as commercial research support land. In response, the provincial government accepted some of LG Uplus's opinions and concluded that the computer room could only operate within the 2nd and 3rd floors. As a result, SK C&C was unable to utilize the 4th to 6th floors.

An industry insider said, "Since floor restrictions were imposed from the time of construction, it is presumed that it was difficult to design the center according to the original plan," adding, "Therefore, it seems they had no choice but to create a structure where key facilities were densely concentrated on one floor."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.