On the evening of Friday, Oct. 18, residents of Kelly Hall and Van Rensselaer Hall came to a chilling realization: the hot water in their buildings was turned off.
The unplanned shutoff came after Drexel University Facilities discovered an “escalating steam leak that [was] threatening critical infrastructure” at nearby 33rd and Arch Streets, per a maintenance notification.
Facilities did not comment on the nature of the failure by time of publication, but it prompted an overnight shutdown of the steam lines that supply Kelly and Van R. with hot water and heat.
Scalding steam billowing from city sidewalks is a familiar year-round sight in neighborhoods around Center City Philadelphia and hints at the city’s reliance on an otherwise unseen network of pipelines. According to Vicinity Energy, the operator and custodian of the steam system, its 41 miles of underground pipes carry steam and chilled water from a hulking power station beside the Schuylkill River to 400 buildings in Philly, including Center City office towers, 30th Street Station, Independence Hall and many on Drexel’s campus.
It is not clear whether Drexel has any ownership stake or responsibility for the steam system supplying the Residential Quad, but Facilities stated contractors had been dispatched to address the leak. Planned shutdowns took place on Oct. 22 and 23 for repairs and further disrupted daytime hot water and heat to Kelly, Van R., the Daskalakis Athletic Center, the Rush Building and the Academic Building. Work occurred at 33rd and Arch as well as Race and Spangler Streets, beside Kelly Hall.
While inconvenient for residential students, the unexpected outage came during an October with record high temperatures and dryness; with over 29 consecutive rainless days, Philadelphia has broken the record set in 1874.
Such a steam system may seem antiquated, but district heating has been embraced throughout Europe as a way to potentially decarbonize urban water heating and space conditioning. Additionally, the system currently runs on natural gas, but it is flexible to potentially run on renewable energy in the future.