Update of Hartford’s underground loop heating system on hold
John Moritz
A contentious plan to heat state office buildings in
downtown Hartford with a new generation of gas-powered boilers is on hold due
to potential interference from the planned reconstruction of Interstate 84,
officials confirmed this week.
In an interview Wednesday, Department of Administrative
Services Commissioner Michelle Gilman said her agency decided late last year to
pause a planned renovation of the Capitol Area System — a network of 15
buildings connected by underground heating and cooling pipes known as the
“loop” — following discussions with other state officials about need to utilize
space around the loop for highway construction.
By agreeing to pause the project, Gilman said the state
would avoid wasting money on new equipment that might later need to be removed
to accommodate the highway. In addition, she said the pause will give officials
more time to consider more climate-friendly alternatives to new gas investments
that have been pushed by some advocates.
“We are going to need some time to understand what the
options look like,” Gilman said. “We have not engaged in those next steps yet.”
In the meantime, Gilman said the state will focus on
maintaining and making repairs to the existing system, which opened in 1988.
The loop is powered by the CAS thermal plant on Capitol
Avenue, which utilizes natural gas boilers to provide heat and hot water for
hundreds of state offices, as well as some private buildings such as the
Bushnell Performing Arts Center. (The state Capitol building relies on a
separate system to heat and cool the 146-year-old building.)
Last year, the state Department of Administrative Services —
which oversees the CAS and many individual buildings along the loop — announced
plans to replace the system’s existing boilers with a combination of heat pumps
and newer natural gas boilers to provide hot water, air and steam to the
buildings.
The so-called “hybrid” approach angered local community
members and environmental advocates, who pushed the state to install an
all-electric or geothermal heating and cooling system that would send fewer
emissions into the surrounding air. Similar systems are under development at
other state offices and at New Haven’s Union Station.
Alycia Jenkins, an organizer with the Sierra Club who helped
lead efforts to oppose the state’s plans, said that while she was pleased with
the decision to pause the project she wanted officials to commit to considering
alternatives that don’t use fossil fuels.
“I just hope that we’re able to get the state to pivot,”
Jenkins said. “They should build it once and build it right. It’s worth it to
the people of Hartford, and it can be a beacon for the rest of the state.”
A study completed for the state in 2023 found that the use
of electric heat pumps or a geothermal system would reduce carbon emissions by
up to 80% compared to the hybrid model originally selected by DAS. However, the
same report also found that those alternatives could potentially double the
lifetime cost of building and operating a new gas system.
On Tuesday, Gilman sent an email to Jenkins and other
members of the Sierra Club saying her agency did not plan on conducting any new
studies in the next year, as officials seek more details about timeline of the
I-84 project.
Gilman later told the Connecticut Mirror that the highway
project may necessitate relocating the CAS plant to a new location. In
addition, she said DAS would evaluate the possibility of closing the loop
altogether and replacing it with several smaller HVAC systems — though she
cautioned that such an option was unlikely given the costs.
Gilman declined to provide a timeline for when DAS would
reach a final decision on the future of the CAS, saying that it would depend
largely on the scope of the Department of Transportation’s work on the
interstate. She also said the agency remained open to utilizing a geothermal
system, if conditions permit one.
“We love that option for geothermal on projects where they
can work and where various properties are sized to be able to include
geothermal and where it makes fiscal sense to do so,” Gilman said.
Jenkins said her group plans to contact state lawmakers
during the upcoming legislative session in order to discuss the future of CAS.
On Wednesday, she and another organizer, Tenaya Taylor, read a poem at a rally
held on the steps on the state Capitol to call for legislation holding large
polluters financially accountable for the damages caused by fossil fuel
emissions.
“We have the wind at our back,” Jenkins said. “I have
confidence that we’re in it for the long-haul, we’re in it for the good fight.”