Heat seeker

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The heating system at Harrisburg’s Broad Street Market is showing its age.

NRG Energy Center Harrisburg said it told the market’s directors at least a year ago that it plans to abandon a leaky 100-year-old steamline along Third Street through which it pumps heat to the market. But the market does not have $500,000 it needs to install a new heating system, said Gregg Fetterman, chairman of the market’s board of directors.

It’s too expensive to justify repairing and maintaining the pipe because the market and the Historic Harrisburg Association Inc. building are the only two customers served by the line, NRG officials said. They would not disclose how much it would cost to fix the pipe. The market is across from the Historic Harrisburg Association building at Third and Verbeke streets. NRG heats other major buildings downtown, including the Capitol Complex, Strawberry Square and Harrisburg Hospital.

The market’s operator, the Broad Street Market Corp., a for-profit subsidiary of the Historic Harrisburg Association Inc., wants to install four gas-fired boilers to replace the steam heat, Fetterman said.

But the city owns the two Civil War-era market buildings and can’t afford the $500,000 price tag for the new heating system because of its financial strains, Fetterman said. The city is buried by about $300 million in debt because of a failed retrofit of its incinerator plant. And the market can’t help buy the boilers with its own money because it isn’t profitable, he said. Few farmers markets in the nation make money, Fetterman said. Historic Harrisburg is working out its own arrangement to replace its heat, he said.

The market is an important part of a revitalization that is taking place in Midtown. Business owners and developers are renovating buildings and opening new businesses, and Harrisburg Area Community College set up a campus in Midtown. Market vendors and other businesses are beginning to feed off each other.

The steam NRG pumps to the market not only heats the market, it warms the water vendors count on, said Brian K. Long Sr., market/operational manager.

At lunchtime, vendors use about 500 gallons of water per minute, Long said. So if the steam pipe were to break, the vendors wouldn’t be able to operate.

“The biggest issue is, ‘What if?’ ” Long said.

NRG has promised to keep the steam coming as the market looks to replace its heating system. And it’s business as usual for the time being, Fetterman said.

But NRG can’t do so indefinitely, NRG officials said.

“I don’t think we want to talk about a specific time,” said NRG Vice President and General Manager Jan Sockel.

NRG has provided steam to the buildings for about 20 years, and it will not leave the market hanging, Sockel said. If the line were to break before the market gets a new heating system, NRG would pay to fix it, he said.

“We have a legal (contractual) obligation (to fix the pipe), and a moral one at that,” Sockel said.

Ed Nielsen, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development and Special Projects, has continued to look for funding to pay for the new heating system, Fetterman said. Nielsen could not be reached as of press time.

NRG officials said the company has helped the market apply for a state grant to help pay for the new boilers. But state funding has fallen through, Fetterman said.

When the market does get the new heating system, it will be 25 percent more efficient, Long said.

The two buildings are referred to as the stone and brick buildings , reflecting their composition, Long said. Several years ago, the stone building’s roof was replaced, and it significantly helped the building retain heat, Long said. The brick building’s roof does not retain heat as well because there are glass windows near the top of it, Long said. The buildings are old, and its systems need to be well maintained and updated, he said.

Upward of one-third of the market’s operating budget pays for heat, Fetterman said. And even after a new heating system is put in place, the market’s board of directors plan to later improve the market’s insulation and install green technologies.

The market, which is the oldest continuously operated farmers market in the U.S., has developed a green comprehensive plan that would cost $2 million to complete. Its board of directors had hoped to use federal stimulus money to put its comprehensive plan into place, but that money has not come through either, Fetterman said.

The plan calls for installation of a geothermal heat system that would tie into a new gas-fired boiler system, Fetterman said. It also calls for solar heating to help warm the building’s water supply. The board wants to improve the buildings’ insulation to hold in its heat better, too, he said.

The market has already installed programmable thermostats to help keep down heating costs down. The market has yet to turn on its heat, but it is ramping it up for the winter season, when it can pay between $7,000 to $12,000 in steam bills per month depending on how cold it is, Long said.

“We’re trying to build it for the next 150 years,” Long said.