Chilled-Water AC Plant to Service Downtown Buildings

PORTLAND-The developer of a massive chilled water air conditioning plant being installed atop a building in the Brewery Blocks redevelopment project hopes to replace individual air conditioning units in office buildings on the north end of Downtown. At build out, the $15 million plant could cool six million sf of commercial space.

The developer is Portland Energy Solutions, a young affiliate of Portland General Electric being funded by Portland General Holdings, all of which are under the Enron umbrella. Portland Energy Solutions General Manager Gary Heikkinen tells GlobeSt.com PES got its break by joining forces early on with Brewery Blocks developer Gerding Edlen Development.

In the first phase of the project, two 30-foot-tall water cooling towers are being hoisted onto the roof of one of the Brewery Block buildings this week while a system of distribution pipelines is being built into the three-level, two-and-a-half block underground parking garage that will service the 1.8-million-sf, five-block redevelopment project. PES is leasing space for the system and Gerding Edlen will use the cooling plant to provide air conditioning for its entire project.