Critical Power and Cooling • Secure and Government Facilities

Secure and Critical Facility UPS and CRAC Cooling in Australia

Defence, government and critical-infrastructure sites carry two problems most contractors treat separately: the equipment must never lose power, and it must never overheat. A uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that fails during a mains event takes the site down; a computer room air conditioner (CRAC) that drifts outside the safe temperature band shortens hardware life and risks thermal shutdown. Indigi treats power and cooling as one resilience problem, because in a secure facility they fail together and they are audited together.

Procurement teams inside Defence, federal and state agencies and SOCI-regulated operators are not searching for the cheapest UPS. They are searching for a contractor who understands the compliance environment, can work inside an accredited facility under the client's security protocols, and brings a procurement pathway that satisfies the Commonwealth's Indigenous Procurement Policy. Indigi is built for exactly that brief.

This page explains how Indigi delivers UPS and CRAC cooling into secure environments, what standards the work is aligned to, and how our ownership and registrations shorten the procurement process for government buyers.

What "secure and critical facility" means for power and cooling

A secure facility is any site where availability, physical access and data protection are governed by a formal framework rather than left to good practice. In Australia that typically means one or more of the following applies to the room the equipment sits in:

• SCEC-rated environments. The Security Construction and Equipment Committee sets the physical security standards for zones handling classified information. Plant and maintenance work inside these zones must respect the zone's access and escort rules.
• IRAP-assessed systems. The Information Security Registered Assessors Program governs systems assessed against the ISM. The physical infrastructure supporting these systems has to hold its availability and environmental envelope.
• SOCI Act critical infrastructure. Operators covered by the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act carry positive duties for the resilience of their assets, which flows straight through to power redundancy and cooling continuity.
• APRA CPS 230 operational resilience. Regulated financial and data operators must demonstrate tolerance levels for critical operations, and the plant room is where those tolerances are physically met.

Indigi does not hold, and does not claim, SCEC endorsement, DISP membership or IRAP assessment as a company credential. What Indigi does is deliver power and cooling work to the requirements of those environments: technicians who hold or can obtain the relevant security clearances, prior experience working on defence and government sites, and the ability to work under a client's security escort and access protocols. That distinction matters in a tender, and Indigi states it plainly rather than overstating a credential it does not hold.

Standards and frameworks this work is aligned to

The table below maps the frameworks a secure or critical site is usually governed by, and how Indigi's power and cooling scope supports each one. These are the entities procurement officers reference in statements of requirement, so they are named here in full.

Why Indigi's ownership shortens government procurement

Indigi is Indigenous and Veteran-owned, registered with Supply Nation and listed on ICN Gateway. For Commonwealth and defence buyers this is not a marketing line, it is a procurement pathway. The Indigenous Procurement Policy sets purchasing targets that agencies must meet, and engaging a verified Supply Nation supplier counts toward those targets. That means Indigi can often be engaged through a more direct route than an open tender, which shortens the procurement cycle for the buyer while still delivering the power and cooling scope to standard.

The Veteran-owned dimension matters on the ground. Technicians with defence backgrounds understand site discipline, access control and the expectation that work inside a secure zone is done quietly, on schedule and without shortcuts. Combined with clearances that are held or obtainable, this reduces the friction of getting a contractor onto a sensitive site.

The power side: UPS for secure facilities

In a critical facility the UPS is the difference between riding through a mains disturbance and a hard outage. Indigi designs, installs and maintains single-phase and three-phase UPS systems sized to the load, with the battery autonomy and redundancy the site's resilience duty requires. Double-conversion (online) topology is standard for secure environments because it isolates the load completely from mains disturbances rather than merely reacting to them.

• Redundant topology. N+1 and 2N configurations so a single UPS or module can fail or be serviced without dropping the load, directly supporting SOCI and CPS 230 resilience.
• Battery autonomy sized to the site. Runtime engineered to the generator start time or the orderly-shutdown window, not a generic figure. Indigi's UPS runtime calculator supports this sizing.
• Maintained availability. Scheduled maintenance keeps batteries and power paths inside tolerance. A well-maintained battery string reaches 4 to 5 years of service versus 3 to 4 years when neglected.
• Installation to AS/NZS 3000. All electrical work performed to the wiring rules by licensed technicians, with commissioning documentation for the site's compliance file.

The cooling side: CRAC for secure server rooms

A secure server room generates concentrated heat, and the equipment inside it is often expensive, classified or both. Computer room air conditioning (CRAC) holds the space inside the ASHRAE TC 9.9 recommended band of 18 to 27 degrees Celsius, protecting hardware life and preventing thermal shutdown. Indigi services all three main CRAC topologies and can advise on the right one for a given room.

• Direct expansion (DX) CRAC for smaller and standalone secure rooms where a self-contained unit suits the footprint.
• Chilled water (CHW) CRAC for larger facilities on a central plant, giving efficient cooling at scale.
• Condenser water (CDW) CRAC where the site uses a cooling tower or condenser loop.
• Maintained to AS/NZS 3666 for air-handling hygiene, with servicing scheduled around the site's access windows.

Because Indigi delivers both power and cooling, a single contractor holds the full environmental picture of the room, which reduces the coordination burden on the facility's security and operations staff.

Coverage across Australia

Frequently asked questions

Does Indigi hold DISP membership or SCEC endorsement?

No. Indigi does not hold DISP membership, SCEC endorsement or IRAP assessment as a company credential, and does not claim to. Indigi delivers UPS and CRAC work to the requirements of SCEC-rated and IRAP-assessed environments, using technicians who hold or can obtain the relevant clearances and who work under the client's own security protocols.

Can Indigi technicians work inside a secure or classified facility?

Yes. Assigned technicians hold or can obtain the required security clearances and have prior experience working on defence and government sites under client escort and access protocols. Access arrangements are confirmed with the facility's security staff before mobilisation.

How does engaging an Indigenous supplier help government procurement?

Indigi is registered with Supply Nation and listed on ICN Gateway. Engaging a verified Indigenous supplier counts toward the purchasing targets agencies must meet under the Indigenous Procurement Policy, which can allow a more direct engagement route and a shorter procurement cycle than an open tender.

What UPS topology suits a critical facility?

Double-conversion online UPS is standard for secure environments because it fully isolates the load from mains disturbances. Redundant N+1 or 2N configurations let a unit be serviced or fail without dropping the load, which supports SOCI Act and APRA CPS 230 resilience obligations.

What temperature should a secure server room run at?

The ASHRAE TC 9.9 recommended band is 18 to 27 degrees Celsius. CRAC systems maintained within this range protect hardware life and prevent thermal shutdown, which matters most where the equipment is high value or classified.

Can one contractor handle both power and cooling?

Yes. Indigi delivers UPS and CRAC cooling together, so a single contractor holds the full environmental picture of the room. This reduces coordination for the facility's security and operations staff and closes the gap between the two systems that fail together during an event.

Related services

• Server room UPS and cooling
• UPS maintenance and maintenance plans
• CRAC unit maintenance
• Three-phase UPS installation and commissioning
• Server room cooling design and install
• UPS runtime and battery sizing calculator