When interviewing for a job at Eversource Energy in 2020, Nikki L. Bruno was asked if she had experience in the geothermal field. Bruno said no, but offered that he had taken geology lessons and could learn.
About four years later, the Massachusetts utility’s vice president of clean technologies led Eversource’s effort to commission a utility-led thermal energy grid, the first in the nation, in a neighborhood densely populated mixed use. In June, the pilot project in Framingham, Massachusetts, connected 24 single-family homes, 100 townhouse units, some public structures and five commercial buildings to collectively provide 135 total customers with heating and cooling from a renewable source. “When you’re writing a request for proposal for contractors and consultants, and you’ve never experienced this work,” says Bruno, “it’s a little intimidating.”
Now utilities around the world look to Bruno’s team for geothermal guidance. Climate advocates even work with Eversource. The Energy Department in December committed $7.8 million to an advocacy group, HEET, which is partnering with Eversource and Framingham to advance the second phase of the project. The funding, still to be finalized at press time, would help double the existing pilot. “We’ve become that leader in the nation on that front,” says Bruno. “But in a collegial way, in a humble way, because we’re saying, ‘We’re trying to figure this out, too,’ and it fostered that open dynamic.”
Bruno is also working toward a model that would allow these networks to operate without relying on grants, tax credits and DOE funding that could dissipate during the Trump administration. “The goal is to make it sustainable on its own,” he says, “doing the hard business math to see how we can set this up so we can move it forward at a profitable pace, a profitable capital investment. for businesses, as soon as we can, so we’re not obligated to some of these tax credit or financing opportunities.”
Eversource was well positioned for the project, not only because it is an expert in installing underground pipes, but also because working with different types of building owners requires infrastructure such as billing systems. He also knew how to navigate permits and siting while bringing various stakeholders to the table. Bruno says his team’s “technical knowledge” helps him manage and execute projects, along with his “emotional IQ and leadership capabilities” around client and community dynamics. “There are a lot of translatable skills that we already have,” he says. “It’s just a different technology.”
Photo courtesy Eversource
Daniel Flaherty, a mechanical engineer at CDM Smith, a design engineer on the project, said Bruno synthesizes information and communicates it “internally and externally in a way that people can understand.”
He added: “Building an energy transition infrastructure requires bringing together many perspectives and opinions to agree on a way forward, and ultimately their success in doing so is what has helped build this project.”
Eversource now says it will work to determine whether utility-scale geothermal networks can be “viably and affordably” expanded or replicated in other “densely populated and mixed-use areas of New England” after ‘finish analyzing the performance of the network during two warm-ups. and cooling stations. The pilot will help determine whether this system can replace legacy energy sources such as natural gas, air source heat pumps, or supplied fuels such as heating oil and propane, or be used in conjunction with the existing heating and cooling systems.
“We can’t fail this project,” says Bruno. “We must succeed with all efforts, because this is really a turning point for what the gas company can be – a thermal company in the future.”
