Steam Forms Substance of Peekskill Business Partnership

People might assume the worse when they hear that the Wheelabrator Westchester waste-to-energy facility in Peekskill is losing steam or that White Plains Linen is filling up with hot air.

But there’s no need to worry.

The two businesses, which are located across from each other, have formed a partnership in which Wheelabrator will sell its excess steam to White Plains Linen. An underground pipe will be built to allow the steam to transfer from building to building.

“It will allow them to avoid having to use natural gas from a boiler and to use a more stable, sustainable form of energy,” said Vin Langone, plant manager for Wheelabrator’s Peekskill facility.

Langone said White Plains Linen won’t see a tremendous savings initially. But he said the dry cleaning business will start to see significant saving as time goes by.

“The price for the steam will remain stable, where natural gas has peaks and valleys in terms of pricing,” Langone said.

The proposal is on the agenda for tonight’s planning commission agenda and is likely to gain approval, according to Anthony Ruggiero, the city’s director of planning.

Langone said the project should be completed  by March once it gets planning board approval.

Ruggiero said the steam proposal is the first one that he has heard of locally or nationally.

“We were excited about it,” Ruggiero said about the first the Planning Commission saw the proposal. “We thought it was kind of a neat concept. Once the pipe is over on the other side of the road, it can be sold to other businesses. The [Holiday Inn Express] is going up and it could be extended to them.”

Tonight’s Planning Commission meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. inside city hall.