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Chronological List of District Heating
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The first steam service in Cambridge was provided in 1914 by the Boston Elevated Railway company, which supplied the campus of Harvard University from its Harvard power station. Harvard's steam load soon outgrew the capabilities of this plant and it planned to built its own heating station, but the Cambridge Electric Light Company offered to sell steam from its 1903 Blackstone station at Western Avenue and Memorial drive at a cost roughly equal to the cost from a Harvard-owned plant.
The Cambridge and Bostson electric companies merged in 1999 as a part of NSTAR and the Cambridge steam system was bought by Dalkia in 2005, which was renamed Veolia shortly thereafter. The system was bought by Vicinity Energy in 2019.
Harvard bought the Blackstone plant in 2003 and has greatly expanded it to meet the University's needs.
References
1916 "Method
by which Harvard University Buys Steam on a Heat Unit Basis," Proceedings
of the National District Heating Association 8:370-403 (May 1916)
1916 The
National Engineer 20:385 (August 1916)
Harvard University gets its steam supply from the Harvard power station of
the Boston Elevated Railway Co. Some of the university buildings are 4,000
ft. from the power station. In all there are 25 buildings, having a total
volume to be heated of 14,704,557 cubie feet. Steam from the power station
is supplied at a pressure of 175 lb. through a 6 in. pipe to a
distribution center, where it is reduced in pressure to 50 lb., and from
there distributed to the different buildings at various pressures. The
minimum charge for steam is based on 600 boiler horsepower, 33,305 B.t.u.
to the boiler horsepower. Tests showed the steam consumption to be 1.6
B.t.u. per day per cubic foot of building heated.
1931 "Cambridge District Heating System" and "District Heating at Harvard University," Proceedings of the National District Heating Association 22:385-397 (June 1931)
1949 "Kendall Square Station," Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 34(3):115 (April 1949)
1949 "The Kendall Square Station," Proceedings of the National District Heating Association 40:172-178 (May 1949)
1982 District heating and cooling feasibility study, the City of Cambridge (Massachusetts). Final report, 1981-1982, July, 1982
1983 "Steam
Talks," The Harvard Crimson, February 26, 1983.
Negotiations with Cambridge Steam Company to replace a contract which
expired June 30 remain at least several weeks from completion. Harvard
officials say.
The municipal utility supplies heat for most buildings in the Yard as well
as all the river Houses and the Business School. For the past eight
months. Harvard has continued to receive steam under a "gentleman's
agreement" that the new contract will include payments retroactive to last
June, says Administrative Vice President Robert H. Scott.
Because the old contract was negotiated shortly after World War II, the
University anticipates paying a substantially higher price for stream
under the new pact. Financial Vice President Thomas O'Brien cited rising
steam costs as a major factor in Harvard's tuition increases earlier this
month.
Scott says that while the University is studying alternate strategies for
heating buildings more efficiently, there is little doubt Harvard will
continue to purchase steam from the utility in the foreseeable future. He
added that the University definitely will not address the steam problem by
building its own power plant, as it did when faced with a similar
situation in the Boston Medical Area ten years ago.
1994 "District Heating and Massachusetts General Hospital - A Tale of Two Cities," by A. Seth, District Energy 80(2):23-26 (Fourth Quarter 1994)
1999 NSTAR was formed in 1999 by the merger of BEC Energy and Commonwealth Energy System and had the following operating units: Boston Edison Company, Cambridge Electric Light Company, Commonwealth Electric Company, and NSTAR Gas Company (formerly Commonwealth Gas and Cambridge Gas Company).
2000 Petition
of Southern Energy Kendall, LLC for Approval to Upgrade and Replace
Generating Facilities at the Existing EFSB 99-4 Kendall Square Station
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Page 2: COM/Steam, which is a subsidiary of NSTAR, distributes steam
to 17 major customers in the Cambridge and Boston area, including
Massachusetts General Hospital, the Museum of Science, Polaroid, and
Biogen. SE Kendall proposes to expand steam sales following construction
of the proposed project
2002 "Harvard
Acquires Local Steam Plant," The Harvard Crimson August 9,
2002
Harvard announced last Friday its purchase of the Blackstone energy plant,
a steam and one-time electricity-producing plant located on the corner of
Memorial Drive and Western Avenue.
A 1997 law required NSTAR, the electric and gas distribution company, to
sell off the Blackstone plant. The plant produces about 70 to 80 percent
of Harvard’s steam, which is used to heat the University.
The law mandated that electricity-distribution companies divest themselves
of electricity-producing facilities.
The plant, for which Harvard paid $14.6 million, has not produced
electricity since November 2001, and its equipment for that is “old and
inefficient,” according to NSTAR spokesperson Mike Monahan. Harvard
negotiated right of “first offer” on the plant as part of its 1992
contract with NSTAR.
The plant produces steam by burning oil and is primarily used for heating
Harvard’s buildings. The steam is distributed throughout the campus by a
series of underground tunnels.
With the plant comes a fair amount of underutilized real estate—a rarity
in Cambridge—raising eyebrows in the Riverside neighborhood, home to the
plant and to a long and difficult relationship with the University that
put up such hated buildings as Peabody Terrace and Mather Towers.
This month, the neighborhood is putting finishing touches on more than a
year of work on new zoning, which activists hope will revitalize the
neigborhood and restrict undesired growth, particularly on the Harvard
front. The zoning changes the site to a residential zone and restricts all
new buildings to a maximum height of 24 feet—less than a third of what is
currently permitted.
Cob Carlson, a member of the Riverside Study Committee, said the steam
plant purchase was expected, but that he would have liked more notice from
Harvard about its intentions with the plant.
“I think Harvard Planning and Real Estate holds their cards close to their
chest,” Carlson said. “I don’t know whether it will change the [zoning]
recommendations or not.”
Carlson said that he expects Harvard to keep its promise to clean up the
plant—which he said Associate Vice President for Harvard Planning and Real
Estate Kathy Spiegelman made at a community meeting.
He added that he would not hesitate to call in independent monitors to
check on the plant.
Thomas E. Vautin, Harvard’s associate vice president for facilities and
environmental services, said Harvard currently has no plans for using the
site, but simply purchased it due to the University’s interest in keeping
control over its steam.
“The goal here is to make sure we have enough heat,” Vautin said, adding
that any long-term plans would have to come after the next stage, which
includes a “due diligence process,” in which Harvard will inspect the
facility, as well as a sign-off from the state.
This is not the first time the University has ventured into the utilities
business. The University built and operated from 1985 to 1998 the Medical
Area Total Energy Plant (MATEP), which supplied steam, electricity and
chilled water to Harvard’s Longwood Campus and to many surrounding
buildings.
MATEP was controversial and widely regarded as a failure, as Harvard paid
more than $350 million to build the plant and sold it for $147 million.
When MATEP was sold, administrators questioned whether Harvard had any
place getting into the energy business.
“Whatever our capacities are as a University, they do not really extend to
great sophistication to running energy plants in a highly deregulated
environment,” said then-University President Neil L. Rudenstine in a 1998
interview.
But Vautin said Harvard has learned its lesson from the MATEP fiasco and
will seek to find an independent contractor to run the plant.
“Harvard only received about 20 percent of the energy that came out of
MATEP,” Vautin said. “In this case it’s just the opposite.”
2003 Harvard
Blackstone Steam Plant
Harvard University purchased the Blackstone Steam Plant from NSTAR in 2003
to ensure the security of the campus’ steam supply.
2005 Are Distributed Energy Technologies a Viable Alternative for Institutional Settings? Lessons from MIT cogeneration Plant, by Karen de los AngelesRapid-Ahumada, August 5, 2005
2005 A former NSTAR subsidiary, NSTAR Steam Corporation, sold its assets to a non-affiliated entity in September 2005.
2007 Veolia
Energy acquires Thermal North America, Inc., the largest portfolio
of district heating and cooling networks in the United States,
June 12, 2007
Veolia Energy is already present in North America through Dalkia, which
acquired the steam distribution network in Cambridge, Massachusetts in
2005.
2013 "Veolia
Energy buys Kendall Cogeneration Station," WickedLocal.com, December
29, 2013
Partnered with investment firm I Squared Capital, the energy company
announced Dec. 5 they entered into an agreement with NRG North America
LLC, an affiliate of NRG Energy, Inc. to purchase the 256-megawatt station
in Kendall Square. Operating since the middle of the last century, the
Kendall Cogeneration Station uses natural gas as its primary fuel source
to produce electrical and steam energy.
Bill DiCroce, executive vice president of chief operating officer of
Veolia’s municipal and commercial business in North America, said the
company is beginning a 7,000-foot expansion of its steam pipeline for
customers in Boston and Cambridge. According to a statement from the
company, the expansion will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
approximately 475,000 tons per year, or the equivalent of removing 80,000
cars from the roads.
“We are beginning operation of our pipeline extension, which when
completed will capture energy from the Kendall Station otherwise lost to
the environment,” DiCroce said. “This is the ‘green steam’ concept –
eliminating the ‘waste’ from the term ‘waste heat,’ using the thermal
energy for critical customer requirements, and preserving the environment
by reducing the carbon footprint of Boston and Cambridge.”
Company representatives declined to offer terms of the agreement. As part
of the acquisition, Veolia will provide operations and management
services. Representatives said the acquisition is expected to close this
year, pending regulatory approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission.
2015 "Boston’s Energy Ecosystem: Framing the national conversation," District Energy (Second Quarter 2015)
© 2026 Morris A. Pierce