Portland Energy Systems Ready to Cool

PORTLAND-There’s not that too many tenants to cool at the moment, but Portland Energy Systems has overcome financing questions and completed the first phase of a planned $15 million plant capable of cooling six million sf of commercial space.

PES General Manager Gary Heikkinen tells GlobeSt.com the system, as it stands, is capable of cooling 1.7 million sf, which not coincidentally is the ultimate size of Gerding Edlen’s redevelopment of the five-block former Blitz Weinhard Brewery on the northwest edge of Downtown Portland.

That’s a big step from February, when the Enron subsidiary had only one small chiller up and running and not enough money to add install the two larger ones. In April, however, fellow Enron subsidiary Portland General Electric, from which PES was spun out last year, won approval from the Oregon Public Utility Commission to make a $2-million loan and keep the company on track.