City Manager hereby is requested to direct the Community Development Department to obtain data from Eversource on electrical demand projections by year until at least 2030, including a breakdown of commercial vs residential demand growth, as well as a ten year historical look back

O-11

ORIGINAL ORDER

Eversource has proposed expansions at 2 power transfer stations, Putnam Avenue and Alewife Substation, as well as a new transfer station on Fulkerson Street in East Cambridge; and These expansions will have significant impacts on residents including noise, roadwork disruption, and potential health and quality of life impacts; and The proposed expansions are necessary largely due to commercial development growth within the city; and The recently released IPCC report says we must reduce emissions by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 in order to avoid potentially civilization-ending climate impacts; and In 2017, the Cambridge City Council adopted a goal of achieving 100% renewable energy consumption by 2035; and The renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in Massachusetts ensures that currently only 14% of grid-supplied electricity is derived from renewable sources (primarily wind, solar and hydro), and is mandated to reach only about 35% by 2030, which means that continuing to increase our grid electricity consumption in Cambridge will continue to increase our greenhouse gas emissions rather than reducing them; and The city’s Net Zero Action Plan includes a variety of methods to reduce grid electricity consumption, including proposed updates to the Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance (BEUDO) to mandate energy use reductions, strengthening green building requirements for large new construction, requiring rooftop solar PV for large new construction where applicable, and proposed new accommodations for retrofitting existing buildings with additional external insulation, among other things; and The King Open/Cambridge Street Upper School complex being constructed by the City will have no on-site fossil fuel combustion, achieving significant energy consumption reductions primarily through the use of geothermal heat pumps and solar PV; and Cambridge has achieved only 2% of our estimated solar PV potential thus far; now therefore be it That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to direct the Community Development Department to obtain data from Eversource on electrical demand projections by year until at least 2030, including a breakdown of commercial vs residential demand growth, as well as a ten-year historical look back; and be it further That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to direct the Community Development Department to work with Eversource to develop alternative strategies for accommodating growth that do not involve adding to our grid electricity consumption, and to evaluate additional ways to reduce electric demand, including quantifying the demand reduction potential of a rapid, full-scale deployment of local solar (PV/thermal) and geothermal potential, aggressive electricity demand management, rapid energy use reductions, widespread deep energy retrofits, and anticipated net zero building construction under the city’s Net Zero Action Plan; and be it further That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to report back to the City Council on this matter by September 2019.