ALBANY, N.Y., April 10, 2024 — In response to the New York Department of Public Service (DPS) decision to advance nine pilot Utility Thermal Energy Network (UTEN) projects submitted by New York utilities in 2023 from Stage 1: Scope Feasibility to Stage 2: Engineering in the implementation of the Utility Thermal Energy Network and Jobs Act (UTENJA), the UpgradeNY collaboration issued the following statement: 

“We applaud Governor Hochul for her leadership in advancing neighborhood-scale decarbonization, and thank the DPS for its work advancing nine Utility Thermal Energy Network pilot projects. The advancement of these proposals strengthens New York’s position as a national leader in using thermal energy networks to deliver neighborhood-scale clean heating and cooling services, which reduce environmental pollution while creating new business opportunities for utilities and ensuring climate jobs for union workers.

We call on all the New York utilities developing these projects to use project labor agreements as required in the law, which include apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs with recruitment in disadvantaged communities, to complete the infrastructure and construction work for these projects. Doing so will facilitate workforce transition planning and build clean energy union careers in building decarbonization. Utility-scale thermal energy network projects will also equitably transition communities to clean heating and clean air while mitigating the need for further fossil fuel infrastructure investments. We encourage New York’s utilities to submit more pilot projects for the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) to consider to increase learning in this pilot stage even further.

In addition, we urge the utilities with projects that were not advanced to work with DPS to provide additional information and to improve their project proposals to fully meet the objectives of UTENJA.

We look forward to engaging with DPS and other stakeholders as these utilities develop engineering plans for their projects and as DPS develops rules for a permanent thermal energy network program. 

The advancement of these projects demonstrates that, working together, we can upgrade New York’s heating and cooling infrastructure in a way that decarbonizes its buildings at neighborhood scale while also providing a just and equitable transition to a clean energy future for its union workforce and communities.”

Background on UTENJA Projects

The thermal energy projects advanced by the DPS will use several innovative designs — including the collection of excess heat from a data center, the use of wastewater heat exchange technology, and an open-loop groundwater heat exchange system — to deploy thermal energy networks across the state, with a focus on disadvantaged communities. 

This wide variety of approaches will provide the PSC and New York’s utilities with opportunities to learn what practices and technologies will work best as New York expands deployment of thermal energy networks across the state. In addition, the knowledge gained from these projects will help the PSC create a strong regulatory framework to govern the future deployment of thermal energy networks that supports meeting the state’s ambitious climate goals. 

Engineering plans for these projects are due in January 2025, 9 months from the issuance of the DPS’s letters advancing each proposal to Stage 2.

Please find below short summary descriptions of the nine thermal energy network project proposals advanced by the PSC from Stage 1: Scope Feasibility to Stage 2: Engineering. For more details on these projects visit the PSC’s Docket on UTENJA here:

• A Con Edison project located in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York, N.Y. 

• This project will collect excess heat from data center and office cooling and send this through a one-block-long thermal main to a heat pump central plant at a NYCHA community. The project will provide efficient heating, cooling, and domestic hot water for residents and make use of all-electric heat that would otherwise be discarded. The project is designed to be dramatically expanded as additional redevelopment and housing construction occurs around the project site. The project is potentially a foundation for a much larger thermal energy network throughout the Chelsea neighborhood and beyond.

• A Con Edison project located at Rockefeller Center in New York, N.Y.

• An existing thermal energy network at Rockefeller Center will be tied to additional office buildings within Rockefeller Center and across Sixth Avenue. The network enables time-of-use heat sharing as a means of also reducing loads on the electric grid. Such a thermal energy network can be a model for ultra-high-density, high-rise urban environments and for the rest of Midtown Manhattan.

• A Con Edison project in Mount Vernon, N.Y.

• This thermal energy network project targets an area containing leak-prone gas pipe in the urbanized area of Mount Vernon, NY, a densely populated Disadvantaged Community in Con Edison's Westchester County service territory. The project will utilize a common geothermal borefield to provide heating, cooling, and domestic hot water to a diversity of customer buildings including large multifamily, small 1- to 3-family homes, and commercial and religious buildings.

• A National Grid project in Troy, N.Y.

• This project will use a common geothermal borefield which will anchor the urban core of historic Troy and serve a diverse set of existing buildings and potentially new construction as well. This area of Troy is a Disadvantaged Community and a variety of thermal energy resources may be utilized in the future to expand the thermal energy network here. The Troy Local Development Corporation will develop the geothermal borefield and sell thermal energy to the utility for resale to thermal energy customers.

• A National Grid project in Syracuse, N.Y.

• National Grid will utilize wastewater heat exchange technology at the Syracuse Wastewater Treatment facility near the Inner Harbor neighborhood of Syracuse to serve a thermal energy network nearby. The system will provide heating and cooling to a variety of planned new construction buildings including residential and commercial. The project is located within a Disadvantaged Community, though the project will not serve existing residents.

• A National Grid project on Vandalia Avenue in Brooklyn, N.Y.

• This project will use a common geothermal borefield to serve high-rise multifamily buildings in the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) portfolio. The project will also extend to an adjacent retail complex and provide thermal energy to business customers there.

• A NYSEG project in Ithaca, N.Y.

• A number of different types of buildings would be served by this thermal energy network located in the urbanized area of Ithaca. Various thermal energy resources including wastewater heat exchange, shallow-depth geothermal borefields, and surface water heat exchange at a canal may serve the thermal energy network proposed here. The project team will explore an open-loop groundwater heat exchange system, which has the potential to be replicated elsewhere in New York at a lower cost than traditional geothermal boreholes.

• An O&R project in Haverstraw, N.Y.

• This project will use a common geothermal borefield to serve various municipal and private residential and commercial properties in the urban core of a Disadvantaged Community in the Lower Hudson Valley. Other thermal energy resources are to be explored including sewer main heat recovery. The project is broken into two separate thermal energy networks, which may be interconnected in the future as additional customers are added to the system. The eastern thermal energy network will support providing heat, cooling, and hot water to new affordable housing construction on the waterfront.

• A RG&E project in Rochester, N.Y.

• Anchored by a large, suburban office building, this project’s common geothermal borefield will serve several different types of buildings in the Disadvantaged Community-designated South Wedge neighborhood.

About UpgradeNY: 

The UpgradeNY collaboration works together to advocate for affordable solutions to decarbonize New York’s buildings while creating a strong foundation for good-paying union jobs. In 2022, the UpgradeNY collaboration successfully led the campaign to pass the Utility Thermal Energy Networks and Jobs Act, which allowed for the creation of utility-scale infrastructure projects that connect multiple buildings in a shared thermal network. This legislation will allow entire neighborhoods and communities to access affordable clean heating and cooling at a time, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, and provide a just transition for workers. Members include Building Decarbonization Coalition, New York League of Conservation Voters, The New York State AFL-CIO, ALIGN, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, New York State Building & Construction Trades Council, Sierra Club’s Atlantic Chapter and Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE). Learn more at upgradeny.org.