Power, not floor space, is now the binding constraint on where AI data centres can be built, and VIRTUS Data Centres has installed two 185MVA super-grid transformers at its Wustermark campus near Berlin to get ahead of it. The company, a pure-play developer and part of the ST Telemedia Global Data Centres Group, says the units are among the largest ever deployed in a European data centre, and they make Wustermark the first campus in Berlin/Brandenburg to connect at 380kV.
That connection voltage is the point of the exercise. The transformers anchor an initial 300MW of capacity, fed through a dedicated 500MW substation with dual direct connections into the 50Hertz 380kV transmission network and integrated with the 50Hertz Wustermark substation. The mesh distribution topology, drawing on multiple renewable infeed points, is what lets VIRTUS offer something most operators cannot: the option to run with no diesel generators at all. Generator capacity is still fitted as standard, but customers can choose a zero-generator configuration to cut carbon emissions and long-term operating costs.
The site will run on 100 percent certified renewable energy, integrated with regional sources including substantial onshore wind. Operating at higher voltages than conventional distribution transformers, the oil-filled units are pitched on resilience, improved electrical efficiency, system stability for AI workloads and reduced transmission losses, alongside lower system usage charges as energy becomes the dominant line in long-term data centre economics.
Delivering the Wustermark Campus has been one of the most ambitious engineering programmes VIRTUS has undertaken to date.
VIRTUS describes the installation as a milestone rather than a finished article, with the campus designed to scale beyond its initial capacity over time. For a region positioning itself as a European digital hub, a 380kV-connected, generator-optional campus is a marker of how far the power requirements of AI have moved the goalposts for site design.
