Harvard Builds a New Power Plant

If you wanted to summarize in two words why Harvard is sharing the costs for the proposed Medical School area Total Energy Plant, they would be "Boston Edison."

A combination of Boston Edison's decision not to build a transformer in the area that would accommodate expected increases in the participating hospitals' needs, plus a saving of over $1.9 million each year in-electricity costs over what they would have to pay to Edison, created the need for the $48 million plant.

A small, smoky power plant adjacent to the Med School has been supplying power for Harvard's uses for the past 70 years.

But that plant, slated for demolition along with 94 units of housing if the new plant receives the go-ahead, won't be able to handle Harvard's needs in the near future or power the proposed Mission Hill housing project, planned for those residents to be evicted by the construction of the plant.

The 784-unit housing project, the last link in the power plant deal, will pacify all the evicted tenants who have been fighting the power plant and hospital expansion for more than a decade.

An environmental impact statement released last week by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the agency that will decide whether the plant will be built, shows that the plant would have a minimum effect on the surrounding Brookline-Huntington Ave, areas, thus giving a virtual okay for the project.

Only a few bureaucratic delays and some court hearings stand in the way of the power plant now.

Mitchell Fischman, an official with the BRA who is working with the power plant project, said last week that the city has shown some concern over a "closer spelling out of the construction particulars."

But promises of reduced pollution and a pledge to pay more than $50,000 in-lieu-of-taxes to the city for taking taxable income off the rolls to make room for the non-profit power plant may soothe the city's objections.

The impact statement mentioned that detrimental vibration and some drainage problems can be expected on the project's site.

The power plant is expected to reduce costs and decrease pollution by recovering heat normally lost through less efficient transfer mechanisms and will consolidate all equipment in one area "where proper engineering design can better control the environmental effects," the 500-page report says.

"People on Mission Hill think that black smoke is going to come out of that smokestack, but there just won't be any," Fischman said. "They think it will be an ugly building, an eyesore, but it will be designed very well."

Roxbury Tenants of Harvard, the recognized bargaining agent for the residents to be displaced if the plant is built, will receive $50,000 from Harvard for the group's staff work and other expenditures incurred while training and orienting tenants for the proposed housing project.