National Grid (NYSE: NGG) has agreed to cut the monthly cost of its geothermal heat pump demonstration project by over half from its original proposal for low-income participants and stretch the project payment out over a longer period.
Under the new plan, low-income customers who participate will be charged $45/month over a five-year period, according to a brief the company submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) late last month. The charges for residential and business customers will be $60 and $90/month, respectively.
National Grid’s original proposal had low-income participants paying $112.50/month over a two-year period. Residents would have paid $150/month and businesses $225/month.
“This is a big win,” Zeyneb Magavi, co-executive director of the nonprofit Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET), told NetZero Insider.
HEET became an intervenor in the DPU hearings for National Grid’s geothermal demonstration program in May to help both the agency and the utility design and implement regulations that would work for the cutting-edge technology.
National Grid and Eversource Energy, another utility in the state with a proposed ground source heat pump demonstration project, are “really leading the way in the country” for cutting emissions out of home heating and cooling, Magavi said, which is “mind-blowing” because they both own natural gas companies.
Magavi developed and refined the concept of ground source heat pump systems that could be installed in the rights-of-way owned by gas utilities, a concept referred to as GeoMicroDistricts.
In the organization’s testimony and comments, HEET provided technical recommendations for the project structure and design, and will be operating as an independent third party to collect standardized data across different geothermal demonstration projects to determine which aspects of the different designs have been the most effective.
A key component of National Grid’s project is its proposal to target leak-prone and aging natural gas infrastructure in a dense city environment for its demonstration.
National Grid agreed to work with HEET on organizing public meetings to hear from engineers, low-income tenants, property owners, policy makers and other stakeholders on how to identify which natural gas pipes should be targeted first. The meetings are also an opportunity for utilities to educate customers and make them more comfortable in the decarbonization transition.
Eversource is behind schedule on its own geothermal demonstration project because of the number of interested parties, municipalities, community leaders and businesses wanting to participate in the utility’s discussions on how to decarbonize home heating and cooling, Magavi said.
The DPU opened a docket earlier this year to investigate how to decarbonize the gas sector (Docket 20-80). Geothermal heat pump districts emerged as a way forward for the industry to potentially use existing natural gas pipes and rights-of-way to transport water to control the temperature of homes.
The systems could allow gas utilities to convert customer heating systems at a scale and pace needed to match the state’s climate mandates while offering their workforce training and employment to operate and maintain the networks.
“People want to do the right thing,” Magavi said, “they just need to be given an option they can take.”
National Grid is awaiting final approval from the DPU on its project, but Stephen Bryant, former president of Columbia Gas in Massachusetts, said in his testimony on behalf of HEET there is no time to waste when it comes to decarbonization.
The Massachusetts climate law “demands a significant transition from natural gas to alternative sources of thermal energy, and geothermal district systems are an opportunity for doing so in a way that supports the public interest,” Bryant said.
He called for additional data on the viability and best options for geothermal district energy systems so that DPU and gas distribution companies can allocate resources that advance public health, safety and environmental mandates.
