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.

"As you can imagine, because we have a substantial amount of capital invested up front and the customers are going to be phased in, our income is not instantly going to cover our costs so we need to draw down on that line of credit," says Heikkinen. "We don't expect to use it all, but it certainly allows us to be sure we can pay our bills for a while."