Imagine testing a major upgrade to a data centre without touching a single cable or rack. That is the idea behind a new pilot in Portugal, where four companies built a virtual model of Nscale’s operations at a large AI site. Schneider Electric, AVEVA, Nscale and Start Campus announced one of the first pilots built with the NVIDIA Omniverse DSX Blueprint. Their data centre digital twin lets engineers try changes on screen before anyone makes them on site.
How the Data Centre Digital Twin Works
The pilot covers Nscale’s work at the SIN01 data centre on the 1.2 GW SINES Data Campus, developed by Start Campus. Engineers combine design and operating data with power and cooling simulations and the needs of the computing workload. The result is one unified view of how the site performs, which helps teams spot ways to improve. A data centre digital twin like this also lets teams test “what if” scenarios, such as how a jump in rack density moves through power and cooling.
Why Testing First Saves Time
Start Campus provides the real site, engineering skills and operating environment for the pilot project. Nscale expects faster start-up, better efficiency and lower risk when it updates its technology stack. Start Campus CEO Robert Dunn said the twin helps teams “test new hardware generations, agree the configuration with our customer and build it once.” That is how a data centre digital twin can help operators grow with less guesswork.
The scale makes careful planning important, because the SINES campus will soon host more than 66,000 NVIDIA Rubin GPUs. Schneider Electric, AVEVA and ETAP joined the Alliance for OpenUSD last year to speed up digital twin work with NVIDIA. AVEVA CEO Caspar Herzberg said operators can “simulate upgrades, expansions and greenfield projects” while they keep improving physical operations as conditions change. If the pilot succeeds, it could become a useful model for other AI sites.
