Boston, National Grid to develop networked geothermal heating system

GEOTHERMAL: Boston’s mayor briefly mentions a major new utility project in her State of the City speech: the city’s first networked geothermal heating and cooling system, to be developed by National Grid in the Franklin Field neighborhood. (WCVB)

BUILDINGS: In her annual speech, Boston’s mayor also announced a new program to ban new city-owned buildings from using fossil fuels. (Boston Globe)

GRID:

• Power outages across the Northeast are now down to around 85,000 as residents begin recovering from flooding and other related emergencies. (PowerOutage.US, Connecticut Public Radio, Delaware County Daily Times)
• With snow in the forecast, worries increase for the thousands of customers without power in New York’s Jefferson County and the immediate region. (Syracuse.com)

FOSSIL FUELS: PJM Interconnection wants Talen Energy to postpone the planned decommissioning of two units at a 840 MW coal, oil and gas-fired Maryland power plant, citing pending transmission upgrades. (POWER Magazine)

CLEAN ENERGY:

• New York’s governor describes her vision for the state’s clean energy transition in her annual State of the State address, but some stakeholders say the plans need to better incorporate equity for nearby communities. (CBS Albany)
• Power utility Public Service Enterprise Group raised its five-year regulated capital spending plan for clean energy and grid projects to $21 billion. (news release)

OFFSHORE WIND: A Rhode Island senator proposes a new federal bill to clarify and streamline the offshore wind development pipeline process. (ecoRI)

REGULATION:

• The president and chief executive officer of United Illuminating says Connecticut’s regulators are creating a hostile environment that is delaying current projects and limiting future investment appetite. (Hartford Business Journal)
• Massachusetts regulators kick off an inquiry to examine rate affordability for low-to-moderate-income bill payers and whether other models could reduce the energy burden. (RTO Insider, subscription)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Federal funds will help five Pennsylvania school districts to purchase 120 school buses powered with clean energy. (WESA)
• Boston-based rental car company Zipcar plans to double its electric vehicle fleet this year, including in Boston and New York City. (Boston Globe)

CLIMATE: Maine’s state climatologist says climate change is the main reason every season over the last century has seen more precipitation. (Portland Press Herald)