YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Two mobile boilers operated by SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC experienced system failures over the weekend, depriving its customers downtown from steam heat Monday morning.
John Rambo, SOBE general manager, said the new 800-horsepower boiler failed Friday evening because of a faulty control motor that regulated a natural gas feed into the unit.
To make matters worse, a secondary 650-horsepower mobile boiler at SOBE’s location on North Avenue tripped overnight, leaving just a 200-horsepower unit in operation.
Technicians from Power Mechanical, the Virginia company that owns the boiler, were on site Monday trying to fix the problem, Rambo said.
“We have one tech working on the 650, one tech working on the 800,” he said. “We hope to have a timeline soon from the techs that I can pass on to customers” as to when service could be restored.
Rambo said the 200-horsepower unit is insufficient to provide adequate steam heat to SOBE’s 28 customers downtown. “It doesn’t do much more than keeping our lines hot,” he said. “I don’t have anything firm from the techs yet.”
Rambo said as of 4 p.m. he’s unsure as to what is causing the failures.
Earlier Monday, downtown’s two federal courthouses closed because of a lack of heat to their buildings.
Rambo said SOBE supplies heat to the Nathaniel R. Jones U.S. Bankruptcy Courthouse and Federal Building on Commerce Street but does not provide steam heat services to the Thomas D. Lambros Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse on Market Street.
Patrons of the downtown YMCA also reported that the facility had very little heat Monday morning, especially in its locker rooms.
“We’ve been out all day and have been managing it with temporary heat,” said Ryan Kelly, principal of Ohio One Group, which owns the Ohio One Building and is a SOBE customer.
“We’re going to stay focused right now going through cold weather mitigation process,” he said. “We’re definitely at a point where long-term solutions need to be discussed.”
Downtown customers have complained over the past several weeks that SOBE’s systems were supplying insufficient steam heat, making it difficult to conduct business. Complicating matters was one of the coldest weeks on record in the Mahoning Valley, where temperatures plunged well below zero. At the time, SOBE operated just its 650- and 200-horsepower boilers. Then a ruptured waterline shut off services to downtown customers.
A third, 800-horsepower boiler arrived Jan. 29 and was activated Feb. 2, restoring heat to customers.
An original 800-horsepower mobile boiler was disconnected and repossessed by its owners Sept. 30 after SOBE management failed to make payments on its lease obligations, leaving customers without heat or hot water.
Currently, SOBE’s business affairs are managed by a court-appointed receiver after the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in late September found that the company could no longer provide services to its customers.
The city of Youngstown last week filed a motion in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to intervene in the case. The court has yet to rule on the matter.
“The recent total and complete failure of SOBE to provide heat to City Hall and other downtown buildings for six days represents a profound change in circumstance that can no longer allow the city to remain idle, particularly when the public health is at stake,” the complaint says.