YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio is working to mitigate disruption to heating and cooling services to downtown after a district utility supplier’s mobile steam plant was repossessed Tuesday.
“We’ve been told it might be a matter of days before service is in place,” said Jason Small, senior assistant law director for the city of Youngstown.
The PUCO informed the city Tuesday that it was working on alternative means to restore service, he said. Among those options in the short-term is to connect Youngstown State University’s steam system to serve downtown customers, he said.
Crews were working on-site as of 7 a.m. Wednesday, sources told The Business Journal.
On Tuesday, Wabash Power Equipment Co. repossessed a mobile steam unit that SOBE Thermal Energy Systems was leasing to provide steam heat and chilled water to 27 buildings and another 90 residential units downtown.
SOBE, based in Dublin, Ohio, had leased the unit to serve downtown customers as it embarked on a plan to convert its plant on North Avenue to use synthetic gas to power its steam generating operations. However, Wabash sued the company after it failed to make lease payments.
A Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ruled in August that Wabash had the right to repossess the equipment. The city then negotiated a deal with Wabash to delay repossession of the equipment until Sept. 30. The city paid the Chicago-area company another $20,000 to preserve the service.
Judge Anthony Donofrio on Friday issued an order approving the PUCO’s motion for the court to assign a receiver to preserve the assets of the troubled district heating and cooling company.
The court appointed Reg Martin -– who served as receiver to manage the assets of the system under its previous owner, Youngstown Thermal – as receiver again.
Martin is authorized to enter, take possession of, manage, operate, protect and complete and exclusively control all of the assets of SOBE, including all real property, inventory, equipment, accounts, revenues, general intangibles, investment property, documents and bank accounts, according to court papers.
The receiver is also authorized to borrow funds that are reasonably necessary “to preserve and protect the assets and to undertake and complete its duties.”