The gas disaster in the Merrimack Valley (Sept 2018) turned off the gas for months for over 5,000 families as winter set in. This single point failure highlighted the vulnerability of our gas system.
As all the homes and businesses in the area quickly tried to move to the electric grid in the area for all their heating and cooking needs, the vulnerability of our electric grid was also highlighted. Many homes particularly in Lawrence did not have the electric capacity to use either the emergency electric heaters or hot plates provided by the National Guard.
Led by Boston University Professor Nathan Phillips, we are creating a method for municipalities to quickly assess the electric capacity in their local building stock to provide emergency heating and other services, and to assess how much work must be performed to transition these homes in the future to greenable electricity.
If you live in Area 6 of Boston, Sign up to participate here .
This work is supported by a grant from the Sasaki Foundation.