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Chronological List of District Heating
Systems in the United States |
The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston started operating its first plant on February 20, 1886. The following year it apparently began supplying steam to nearby buildings on the same block. The system was greatly expanded over time and was renamed Boston Edison in June 1937.
The Boston Edison steam system was acquired by Catalyst Energy on February 6, 1987 for $32.5 million. Catalyst was renamed United Thermal shortly thereafter and it was acquired by Trigen in 1993. This system continues to operate today under the ownership of Vicinity Energy.
The Boston Heating Company built a system based on the superheated water design developed by William E. Prall. It was largely financed by Theodore N. Mail, former president of Bell Telephone. It began operating in January 1888 with 70 customers and was shut down on November 9, 1889 due to the disintegration of the open return pipe.
A third system was started in 1907 to supply several hospitals affiliated with Harvard University in the Longwood Area of Boston. The Medical Center Total Energy Plant (MATEP) was built in 1978 and was designed to run independent of the local electric grid, which was not inclined to interconnect with on-site generation facilities. The facility was sold in 1998 and is currently operated by Engie.
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| 1888 Map of the Superheated Water System of the Boston Heating Company | Map showing five of the six heating plants leased by the Edison Illuminated Company of Boston in 1915. |
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| 1925 Map of the Downtown Steam System | 1951 Map of the Boston Edison Company steam system showing two primary plants and eleven smaller leased plants, from NDHA District Heating Handbook, Third Edition, Page 135 |
References
1873 An
act to incorporate the Boston Steam Supply Company, March 8, 1873.
Joseph Sawyer, Sewall H. Fessenden, John G. Webster, John A. Coleman,
Ellsworth Torrey, for the purpose of supplying steam in the city of
Boston. Capital stock shall not exceed one million dollars, divided
into shares of the par value of one hundred dollars.
1880 The "Prall" System of Supplying Heat and Power to Cities by means of superheated water, by Prall Union Heating Company
1880 "The 'Prall' System," The Plumber and Sanitary Engineer, 3:448 (October 15, 1880)
1882 The Prall New York Heating Company changes its name to the New York Superheated Water Company, September 1, 1882, Laws of the state of New York 1883:773
1883 "A
New Electric Light Company," Boston Evening Transcript,
March 29, 1883, Page 2 |
Part 2 |
The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston was organized at
Young's Hotel yesterday afternoon with a capital of $1,000,000.
1885 Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston Incorporated, December 26, 1885.
1885 Sanborn
Fire Insurance Map from Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts,
Volume 1 (1885)
Plate 21: Park Theater uses steam from 6 Haymarket (Braham, Dow
& Co. Boston Steam and Gas Pipe Works)
1886 "More
Electric Lights," The Boston Globe, February 9, 1886, Page
2.
First Edison station in Boston. Later known as Station G on the
above 1915 map. The contracts call for lights to be running in the
Bijou Theatre on February 22.
1886 "Bijou
Theater," The Boston Sunday Globe, February 21, 1886, Page
11.
Only theatre in the city lighted by the Edison Electric Light.
1886 The Boston Heating Company was organized on December 23, 1886
1887 Reports
of Proceedings of the City Council of Boston for the Year 1887
Pages 282-284: March 21, 1887. Boston Heating Company
1887 "The Plant of the Boston Heating Company," by Arthur V. Abbott, Read before the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, November 16, 1887, Association of Engineering Societies 7(10):389-410 (October 1888)
1887 Central station heating: address before meeting of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, November 16, 1887, by Arthur V. Abbott, National Heating Company (1888)
1887 "Boston's
Underground System," Boston Evening Transcript, December 17,
1887, Page 5.
A Maze of Sewers, Water, Gas, Telephone and Electric Light Pipes.
The Heating Company's Conduit.
1887 Report made to the National Superheated Water Company on the Prall system of supplying heat for cooking, heating and steam power, by Benjamin Franklin Isherwood
1888 "Heating
Company at Work," The Boston Globe, January 7, 1888, Page 6.
The Boston Heating Company formally began operations for the winter
yesterday evening. After all the mains boilers and pumps had been tested
and found to be in satisfactory condition. Mr. Richards, the President of
the company. turned the valve which set the hot water circulating in the
complex system of pipes.
1888 "A Description of the Plant of the Boston Heating Company," by Arthur V. Abbott, Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers 16:870-887 (February 1888)
1888 Theodore R. Timby,
Heat and Power Supply System, U.
S. Patent No. 379,744, Patented March 20, 1888.
To furnish a sufficient and equable supply of heating air to houses at a
small cost.
1888 Report of the Board of Experts on the Central Station Heating and Power System of the National Heating Company, by Rossiter W Raymond, C. C. Martin and George W. Plympton, March 26, 1888
1888 "The Plant of the Boston Heating Company," Engineering and Building Record 17:315 (April 28, 1888)
1888 "Fire Record. The Loss in the Edison Electric Light Works in Boston," Worcester Evening Gazette, June 2, 1888, Page 2.
1888 "The Prall System of Distributing Heat and Power from Central Stations," by E. D. Meier, Read May 2, 1888, Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies 7(8):305-313 (August 1888)
1888 Central station heating and power supply [by the use of superheated water], by Rochester Superheated Water Company
1889 "Report
of the Board of Experts on the Central Station Heating and Power Supply
System of the National Heating Company, New York, 1888," by Dr.
Rossiter W. Reymond, C. C. Martin, and Prof Geo. W. Plympton, Minutes
of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 97:471-473
(1889)
Report of the plant of the Boston Heating Company
1890 "Steam
Heating From Central Stations," Association of Edison
Illuminating Companies 6:64-66 (September 1890)
Page 65: Mr. Edgar: We are supplying about $1,000 worth of
steam, heating one block; still I think the steam-heating proposition a
failure. During three or four hours when steam was required we could
supply it economically; but during the other hours, with three or four
pounds back pressure, it required perhaps twenty-five horse-power. Your
use of exhaust steam is limited to a few hours, from 5 to 6 in the
morning; during the rest of the day and night I do not think you can very
well heat with exhaust, and to use live steam is, I think, losing more
money than you get in return.
I thoroughly believe in doing steam heating from central stations if
it is properly done. What I meant to state was that central stations
contemplating this method should go into it very carefully. We have only
done this as an accommodation, not as a source of revenue, and in some
cases we have charged from our coal bill. Still the subject is worth
considering.
1891 "The Boston Station," By C.L. Edgar, Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies 7:83-84 (August 1891)
1895 Sanborn
Fire Insurance Map from Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts,
Volume 1 (1895)
Plate 42 Shows the Edison Electric Illuminating Co. Plant, a note shows
that the adjacent Park Theatre received steam for heating from the Edison
plant, along with other buildings on the same block.
1904 "Edisonia,"
a Brief History of the Early Edison Electric Lighting System,
by the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies.
Page 136: First Theatre Lighted in this country. The Bijou
Theatre, of Boston, was lighted by an Edison isolated plant December 12,
1882. The installation of boilers, engine, and dynamos, wiring, switches,
three stage regulators, and 650 lamps, was completed eleven days after
receipt of order. Gilbert & Sullivan's "Iolanthe" was the first
attraction. The generators were 500 feet from the theatre. On the stage
was a bank of 11 switches; there were no footlights; 192 “А” lamps
surrounded the prosceniam arch; 140 were placed in the borders and 60 in
the chandelier of the auditorium, making a total of 644. No other method
of lighting was provided.
1915 District
Heating: A Brief Exposition of the Development of District Heating and
Its Position Among Public Utilities, by S. Morgan Bushnell and
Frederick Burton Orr
Page 10: Shortly after the Illinois Maintenance Company in Chicago
was started in 1898, the Boston Edison Company inaugurated a similar
system, operated under the direct management of the company.
Pages 282-283: District heating in Boston, including map
showing five of the six heating stations leased by the company.
1920 "New
Installation of Underground Steam Mains in Boston," The Bulletin
of the National District Heating Association 5(2):43-44 (January 15,
1920)
Page 44: This line is installed for the purpose of supplying the
Tremont Theatre, Hotel Avery, Boston Publishing Company, (publishers of
two daily newspapers), Clark's Hotel, Park Theatre, and Hotel Brewster,
equivalent of 40,000 square feet of radiation. While the line is a short
one, the yearly consumption per foot of main is established at 175,000
lbs. The wide diversity of customers' requirements permits of an unusually
large connected load.-
1921
In One Man's Life: Being Chapters from the Personal & Business
Career of Theodore N. Vail, by Albert Bigelow Paine
Pages 190-194: The Boston Heating Company
1925 "District
Heating Progress in Boston," by D.S. Boyden, Transactions of the
American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers 29:291-303
(May 1925)
Page 295: In Boston, Mass., steam has been supplied to properties
adjoining the steam plants of the electric company as long ago as 1887,
and since that time additional heating plants have been acquired so there
are at the present time seven individual heating stations, ranging in
capacity from 10,200 lb. of steam per hr. to 34,000 lb.
1928 Report
of the Board of Directors to the Stockholders by Edison Electric
Illuminating Company of Boston, March 20, 1928
Page 6: Since the close of the fiscal year, contracts have been
entered into with the Boston & Maine Railroad for its entire electric
and steam heating requirements for along term of years.
1928 "To Increase Its Steam Plants," The Boston Globe, April 17, 1929, Page 22.
1930 "Edison Guests See New Heating Plant," The Boston Globe, October 21, 1930, Page 29.
1930 "Boston Edison to Spend $1,000,000 on Plant," The Boston Globe, November 29, 1930, Page 15.
1930 Steam Heating Service: Its Development and Application in Boston, 1930
1930 "Boston Edison to Spend $1,000,000 on Plant," The Boston Globe, November 29, 1930, Page 15.
1930 "The S-2 Steam Heating Station of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston," by Davis S. Boyden, Journal of the Engineering Societies of Boston 1(7):9-20 (December 1930) | also here |
1931 "Now Heating Nearly 200 Buildings," The Boston Globe, March 6, 1931, Page 18.
1931 "District Steam Heat Business in Boston," by Charles L. Edgar, The Boston Globe, June 2, 1931, Page 158.
1931 "A Brief History of
District Heating in Boston," by C.L. Edgar, Proceedings of the
National District Heating Association 22:25-28 (June 1931)
We went into the heating business originally somewhat against our
will. We found customers who had isolated plants and who thought
they could not afford to buy electricity from us because of the value of
them of their steam for heating purposes. We found a solution by
taking over the steam plant of such a customer and operating it for the
mutual advantage of the customer and ourselves. This practice
proceeded and we soon found ourselves with nine isolated heating plants
owned by some of our largest electrical consumers, all located in our
downtown shopping district. We interconnected some of these plants
for economic reasons, and took customers along the intervening streets,
thus really starting a steam heating business on its merits.
Some two or three years ago we were met by the most important problem of
this kind that had come to our attention. It resulted in our buying
the electric plant of the Boston & Maine Railroad, supplying not only
their own station but their extensive terminals with our own electricity,
and operating the steam plant for steam purposes throughout the terminal
and for a number of properties located in that part of the city.
We then purchased land on one of our prominent streets and have
constructed what we believe to be a modern district steam heating
plant. Before it was finished, we found the demand from business was
so great that we had to increase its capacity 60 or 70 percent.
1937 Company renamed Boston Edison, July 1937.
1951 District
Heating Handbook, Third Edition, National District Heating
Association
Pages 17-19: The area supplied with steam by the Boston Edison
Company is, in general, the downtown business district of Boston, with two
offshoots—one through the Back Bay district to serve institutions in that
area, the other across Capitol Hill to the North Station of the Boston and
Maine Railroad. This extension also serves the well-known Massachusetts
General Hospital.
The system is supplied principally from one plant which is located near
the South Terminal Railroad Station on Kneeland Street. This is a modern
plant with three boilers. In addition, there is another Company-owned
plant connected to the system, located near the North Terminal, and eleven
relatively small basement plants which are under lease.
Steam enters the district heating system from the plants at pressures
varying between 100 and 185 psi. No exhaust steam is used in the district
heating system.
As of January 1, 1949, the Company supplied 698 customers, among which
were all types of buildings, including department stores, hotels, clubs,
loft buildings, churches, schools, and apartment houses. Among the better
known buildings supplied are the Boston and Maine Railroad Terminal and
its associated buildings; the Manger Hotel; the Parker’ House; the
Christian Science Church, Publishing House and original Mother Church; and
the Massachusetts State House.
The largest customer is served, in annual sales, uses approximately
200,000,000 lb, the smallest about 50,000 to 60,000 lb per year. Steam is
employed for industrial purposes such as the manufacture of clothing and
hats, and process steam is used in many buildings for restaurant needs.
There are no unusual industrial uses.
Boston has experienced a rapid increase in sales and the demand for
district steam service is so pronounced that a more rapid growth is
prevented until additional steam-generating capacity is installed.
In the area now provided with mains from which short extensions and
crossgrids may be installed, there is available approximately, as much
volume unheated and unserved as the total of the present business.
Page 135: Map of the Boston Edison Company steam system showing two
primary plants and eleven smaller leased plants (see above).
1951 The
Boston Edison story, 1886-1951, 65 years of service, by James
Vincent Toner
Page 12: The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston Incorporated,
December 26, 1885.
No mention of steam heating.
1970 "District
Heating and Total Energy," by J.W. Megley, Proceedings of the
National District Heating Association 61:46-52 (June 1970)
Description of the MATEP project planning.
1983 Boston,
North Station Urban Renewal Project Environmental Impact Statement
Pages V-39-40: Boston Edison also owns and operates a district
heating system which provides steam, primarily for heating and air
conditioning, to the downtown Boston area. Four plants are tied with the
system. load supply is provided by the Kneeland Street steam plant near
South Station, which has a sendout capacity of 1.1 million lbs./hr.
Additional or peaking capacity for the system is provided by the Minot
Street steam plant, in the North Station project area, and by the Scotia
Street plant in the Back Bay. The fourth plant, the L Street plant in
South Boston, currently is off-line due to a shrinkage in demand in recent
years. The three operating plants have a total sendout capacity of
1,830,000 lbs./hr. Peak winter demand of about 1,520,000 lbs./hr., occurs
typically in the late morning of the coldest day while peak summer demand
of about 1,225,000 lbs./hr. occurs in the mid-afternoon of the hottest
day.
The Minot Street plant, although normally operated only about 10 days a
year, during the winter peak loading period, is nevertheless vital to the
maintenance of adequate steam pressure in the area, and particularly to
the Massachusetts General Hospital complex, which is Edison's largest
customer. This plant has two oil-fired boilers burning #6 oil (0.5% sulfur
content) with a sendout capacity of 300,000 lbs./hr., supplying
approximately 3% of the system's annual need. Fuel oil is delivered
to the Minot Street plant via an underground pipeline from Edison's New
Boston electric generating station in South Boston. To the rear of the
plant is a 30-foot addition (currently unused) which was originally a
brine/ice plant for Boston Garden.
1985 Hydronic
System Design and Operation: A guide to heating and cooling with
water, by Erwin G. Hansen
Pages 418-419: Prall's promotion of his HTW system, in spite of
violent opposition in the trade papers (see Plumber and Sanitary
Engineer, October 15, 1880), led to the founding of The National
Superheated Water Company in New York and the construction of the first
large-scale HTW district heating system in Boston.
The plant of the Boston Heating Company was located off Atlantic Avenue
and consisted of six boilers with a common economizer. The district
covered a considerable area bounded by Atlantic Avenue, Broad Street,
State Street, Washington Street, Milk Street, Devonshire Street, and
Summer Street. Within this area, an interconnected grid system was
constructed consisting of 4-in (100-mm) HTW supply mains and 8-in (200-mm)
gravity return mains. It was an excellently constructed system, costing
approximately $1.5 million, and the details of construction, as described
in the April 28 through May 26, 1888 issues of the Engineering and
Building Record, and in the Transactions of American Institute
of Mining in the same year, make interesting reading even today.
The plant was completed and started selling heat in January 1888. It soon
had 70 customers signed up, all of whom expressed complete satisfaction
with the service rendered to them. Nevertheless on November 9, 1889, that
is, after less than 2 years of operation, the plant and system shut down
and went out of business. The cause of the failure was the complete
disintegration of the gravity return line through corrosion. While a
steam system can be operated without condensate return at an increase in
the fuel consumption and fuel cost of approximately 12 percent, the Prall
system without recovery of the spent water incurred a cost increase of 60
percent due to fuel consumption. It was thus no longer economically
viable.
At the time the causes of corrosion were not understood, and it was
thought that the continuously changing return temperature was at the
origin of the failure. Now, of course, we know that the culprit was the
atmospheric oxygen picked up in the open return. One lesson to be learned
from the Perkins and Prall systems is that a truly closed HTW system lasts
indefinitely, whereas an open system can disintegrate in almost no time at
all.
1986 Boston Edison Centennial, 1886-1986: History of the Boston Edison Company, by David B. Sicilia
1986 "Edison
agrees to sell 3 steam plants," The Boston Globe, September
26, 1986, Page 70.
Boston Edison Co. has agreed to sell its three steam heating plants to the
Catalyst Energy Development Corp, of New York for $32.5 million.
Catalyst operates steam systems in Baltimore, St. Louis and Youngstown,
Ohio. It is under contract to purchase a similar system in
Philadelphia. The plants are located on Kneeland Street near
Chinatown, on Scotia Street in the Back Bay, and on Minot
Street behind North Station.
1990 "Catalyst Selling Energy Unit Stake," The New York Times, October 17, 1990, Page D5.
1990 "At the control board of a hot Philadelphia property," The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 22, 1990, Page 3-D
1993 "Energy
merger turns up heat," Tarrytown Daily News, October 20,
1993, Page 8B.
Trigen will acquire United Thermal for about $10.7 million.
1993 "French
firm takes on task of cooling Center City buildings," The
Philadelphia Inquirer, November 24, 1993, Page C-1 | Part
2 |
Trigen is set to buy United Thermal for $64.8 million. United Thermal
delivers steam to customers in Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and St.
Louis.
1993 "Boston Heating Company," by Morris A. Pierce
1994 "District Heating and Massachusetts General Hospital - A Tale of Two Cities," by A. Seth, District Energy 80(2):23-26 (Fourth Quarter 1994)
2007 Menino
urges city regulation of steam, The Boston Globe, July 20,
2007, Page 20
It was announced last month that Trigen's parent company, Thermal North
America, Inc., will be sold for $788 million to Boston-based Veolia Energy
North America, which is part of Veolia environment of Paris.
2007 "French conglomerate wraps purchase of Trigen parent," The Boston Globe, December 15, 2007, Page 27.
2015 "Boston’s Energy Ecosystem: Framing the national conversation," District Energy (Second Quarter 2015)
2019 Commonwealth
of Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board, May 20, 2019
Pages 2-3: In December 1986, Boston Thermal Corporation acquired
certain assets from Boston Edison Company. In February 1986, Boston
Thermal Corporation changed its name to Boston Thermal Energy
Corporation. In March 1994, Boston Thermal Energy Corporation
changed its name to Trigen-Boston Energy Corporation. In November
2010, Trigen-Boston Energy Corporation changed its name to Veolia Energy
Boston, Inc.
MATEP
History
MATEP's history dates back to 1906 when Harvard University built a
powerhouse to provide electricity for the Harvard Medical School only
yards from where MATEP stands today. Later, the powerhouse was
converted to provide steam and chilled water.
For many years the facility had a proven track record of providing heating
and cooling services to its customers. Toward the end of the 1960's,
it became apparent that the original design was becoming technologically
obsolete. Planners from Harvard and area hospitals reviewed
alternative methods of meeting the future utility needs of the various
institutions. After a review of the available alternatives, the
total energy plant concept was recommended as the most cost effective and
fuel-efficient way to ensure the availability of utility services on a
long-term basis.
From 1978 to 1998, MATEP was owned by Harvard and operated by the
Cogeneration Management Corporation.
On June 1, 1998, Advanced Energy Systems (AES) acquired MATEP from
Harvard. After the acquisition of AES by NSTAR, a major electrical,
steam and chilled water expansion was undertaken at MATEP to meet the
growing needs of the connected facilities and to improve the operating
efficiency and reliability of the plant.
On June 1, 2010, MATEP was acquired by a joint venture between Morgan
Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Veolia Energy North America. The
joint venture had an Operations & Maintenance contract with Veolia
Energy Boston as the operator of the facility.
Since April 2018, ENGIE North America and Axium Infrastructure, operating
jointly as Longwood Energy Partners, became a new part of this facility’s
and this part of Boston’s storied history – and equally important, their
future. The partnership is managing long-term utility contracts through
the year 2051 to heat, cool and distribute power to five major hospitals
and clinics as well as the Harvard Institutes of Medicine. ENGIE as the
operator of the facility, is responsible for the resiliency and
reliability of steam, chilled water and electricity to serve these
world-renowned medical institutions.
2019 Veolia Energy was bought by Vicinity Energy in December 2019.
Current plants: 153-173 Kneeland Street; 19-27 Scotia Street;
Proceedings of the Boston City Council
Boston Edison Company Records at Baker Library, Harvard
Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston Records 1885-1889, 1986, Thomas Edison National Historic Park | finding aid |
Fire Insurance and Real Estate Atlases of Boston at the BPL
© 2026 Morris A. Pierce