{ "atlas": "Boston Energy Atlas", "generated": "2026-09-24", "charter": "../docs/CHARTER.md", "schema": "schema/", "counts": { "dataset": 41, "decision": 25, "site": 11, "gap": 17 }, "eras": [ { "id": "lighting", "label": "Lighting", "start": 1882, "end": 1900, "asked_of_the_grid": "A few hours of high demand after dark, in a dense downtown, with no daytime load to pay for the plant." }, { "id": "traction", "label": "Streetcars", "start": 1889, "end": 1930, "asked_of_the_grid": "All-day power at a scale lighting never needed, on a schedule set by commuting rather than by darkness." }, { "id": "appliance", "label": "Appliances", "start": 1920, "end": 1960, "asked_of_the_grid": "Household load, spread across the whole system, sold by the utility that also sold the appliance." }, { "id": "cooling", "label": "Air conditioning", "start": 1950, "end": 1995, "asked_of_the_grid": "A summer afternoon peak that eventually exceeded the winter one, coincident across the entire region on the same few days." }, { "id": "gas-heat", "label": "Gas heat", "start": 1950, "end": 2020, "asked_of_the_grid": "Nothing — and that is the point. Heating went to a second network, built in parallel, and the electric system stopped being the winter system." }, { "id": "colocation", "label": "Colocation", "start": 1995, "end": 2015, "asked_of_the_grid": "Flat, continuous, high-density load in buildings that had been warehouses and telephone exchanges, concentrated on a handful of downtown circuits." }, { "id": "distributed-energy", "label": "Distributed energy", "start": 2008, "end": null, "asked_of_the_grid": "To run backwards. Generation on the customer's side of the meter, interconnecting under a tariff written for it — the one kind of new connection Massachusetts does publish capacity for." }, { "id": "heat-pump", "label": "Heat pumps", "start": 2018, "end": null, "asked_of_the_grid": "The winter peak back, on the coldest mornings, in the same neighbourhoods whose gas pipe is being retired." }, { "id": "compute", "label": "Compute", "start": 2020, "end": null, "asked_of_the_grid": "Interconnections measured in hundreds of megawatts, requested faster than distribution can be built, by customers who publish nothing about their load." } ], "entries": [ { "type": "dataset", "id": "ai-hyperscaler-capex", "title": "Hyperscaler capital spending, by quarter, 2019–2026 — the money building the AI data centres", "eras": [ "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/ai-hyperscaler-capex.json", "grain": "none", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/F-compute/ai-demand/data/hyperscaler_capex.csv", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "What Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle spent on property and equipment each fiscal quarter, read from the XBRL facts in their own 10-Q and 10-K filings, with the accession number of every filing on every row. It is the single cleanest measure of the AI build-out: the companies name the data centres as the reason in the same filings, and the line quadrupled in three years.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "quarterly, with each 10-Q", "stale_after": "2027-01-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "ai-race-timeline", "title": "The AI compute race, dated: 77 events 2018–2026 with the figure each carried", "eras": [ "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/ai-race-timeline.json", "grain": "none", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/F-compute/ai-demand/data/race_timeline.csv", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "One row per event in the making of the AI data-centre demand — the 2018 scaling post, the $1 billion, the 10,000-GPU machine, ChatGPT, each capex guidance, each gigawatt announcement, each doubt — with the number the event carried, its unit, its source id and its tier. It is the register the chapter's timeline is drawn from, and the file to check when a date on the page is questioned.", "limitations": 1, "refresh": "as events occur", "stale_after": "2027-03-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "berdo-building-energy", "title": "BERDO building energy and emissions reporting, Boston, 2021", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/dataset/berdo-building-energy.json", "grain": "building", "format": "geojson", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/19-berdo/raw/berdo_reporting_2021.geojson", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "Every large building in Boston, with how much energy it used, how much of that arrived as electricity rather than as something burned, and what it emitted. It is the ONLY record of energy actually consumed anywhere in this atlas that reaches an individual address, and it is what a person can hold up against the claim that a neighbourhood is electrifying.", "limitations": 5, "refresh": "annual, but the MAPPED release stops at 2021", "stale_after": "2026-12-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "boston-council-districts", "title": "Boston City Council districts, 2023–2032", "eras": [ "heat-pump", "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/boston-council-districts.json", "grain": "none", "format": "geojson", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/21-districts/raw/boston_council_districts_2023.geojson", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The nine council districts drawn after the 2020 census, with the sitting district councillor. For a Boston resident this is the elected body that passed BERDO, and the person to write to about it.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "every ten years; councillor names after each election, when the City republishes", "stale_after": "2027-01-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "boston-neighbourhoods", "title": "Boston neighbourhood boundaries", "eras": [ "appliance", "cooling", "heat-pump", "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/boston-neighbourhoods.json", "grain": "neighbourhood", "format": "geojson", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/18-boston-neighbourhoods/raw/boston_neighborhoods.geojson", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The 26 neighbourhoods the City of Boston draws, so that a reader can ask about Allston or Dorchester rather than about census tract 25025000802. It carries no energy data of its own; it exists so the rest of the atlas can be asked a question in the words people actually use.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "when the City revises them, which is rare", "stale_after": "2028-09-30" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "cambridge-beudo", "title": "BEUDO building energy disclosure, Cambridge, 2015–2024", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "distributed-energy", "heat-pump", "compute" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/dataset/cambridge-beudo.json", "grain": "building", "format": "json", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/22-cambridge-beudo/raw/beudo_2015_2024.json", "redistributable": "unclear", "line": "Ten years of electricity in kilowatt-hours and gas in therms for every large building in Cambridge, one row per building per year, with a point. It is the longest building-grain consumption series anywhere in this atlas, and it is what narrows the consumption gap from 'nothing below the state' to 'nothing below the large building'. Around 1716 Cambridge Street it names 32 buildings and what each burned and drew in 2024.", "limitations": 5, "refresh": "annually, each winter, for the prior calendar year", "stale_after": "2027-03-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "cambridge-electrical-permits", "title": "Electrical permits, Cambridge, 2018 onward — the electrification signals", "eras": [ "distributed-energy", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/cambridge-electrical-permits.json", "grain": "point", "format": "json", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/24-cambridge-permits/raw/electrical_permits.json", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "Every electrical permit Cambridge has issued since 2018, with the things the register counts: EV charging stations, photovoltaic panels, air-conditioning units, kVA and service ampacity. It is the only address-grain record of the transition arriving one permit at a time, and it is what lets the map say that within 300 metres of an address 232 permits were pulled since 2020 and three of them were for a charger.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "continuous — the register is live", "stale_after": "2027-03-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "cambridge-gas-permits", "title": "Gas permits, Cambridge, 2018 onward — what is still going in on gas", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/cambridge-gas-permits.json", "grain": "point", "format": "json", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/24-cambridge-permits/raw/gas_permits.json", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "Every gas permit Cambridge has issued since 2018, with the appliances the plumber declared: meters, water heaters, furnaces, boilers, stoves, dryers, conversion burners. Read against the electrical register it is the gas transition measured one appliance at a time — new gas meters fell from 402 in 2020 to 23 in 2025 — and it is the record that says whether a street is leaving gas or just adding electricity on top of it.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "continuous — the register is live", "stale_after": "2027-03-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "cambridge-solar-installations", "title": "Solar installations, Cambridge, as points", "eras": [ "distributed-energy" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/cambridge-solar-installations.json", "grain": "point", "format": "json", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/23-cambridge-solar/raw/solar_installations.json", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "Every solar system the City of Cambridge knows of, with a street address, a point, its capacity and the date its permit issued — 1,260 systems and about 14 MW. It is the grain MassCEC does not publish, and it closes the ZIP-only gap for one municipality out of 68.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "maintained by the City; republished periodically", "stale_after": "2027-09-30" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "celt-forecast-2026", "title": "ISO-NE seasonal peak forecast to 2046, with component decomposition", "eras": [ "heat-pump", "distributed-energy", "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/celt-forecast-2026.json", "grain": "region", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/02-celt-forecast/isone_seasonal_peak_forecast_2026_2046.csv", "redistributable": "unclear", "line": "The 2026 CELT forecast broken into its components — base load, electric vehicles, heat pumps, large loads, behind-the-meter solar and batteries, gross and net — by zone, to 2046. This is the table that lets the atlas say WHICH load is driving the forecast, rather than only that demand rises.", "limitations": 5, "refresh": "annual, each spring", "stale_after": "2027-06-01" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "chargers-by-substation", "title": "Public chargers aggregated to bulk supply substation", "eras": [ "distributed-energy" ], "tier": "modeled", "path": "entries/dataset/chargers-by-substation.json", "grain": "substation", "format": "json", "file": "data/chargers_by_substation.json", "record_count": 25, "bytes": 2588, "redistributable": "created-here", "line": "A derived table counting Boston's public charging ports against the bulk supply substation of the circuit each sits nearest. It is the atlas's first attempt to say where new load is concentrating on the existing network — and it is modelled, not measured.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "recomputed whenever either input changes", "stale_after": "2026-12-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "data-centre-buildings", "title": "Data centre buildings, Boston market", "eras": [ "colocation", "compute" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/dataset/data-centre-buildings.json", "grain": "building", "format": "geojson", "file": "data/datacenters.geojson", "record_count": 25, "bytes": 24587, "redistributable": "no", "line": "The Boston-market data centres in a commercial directory, grouped by BUILDING rather than by tenant, because the building is the electrical customer. 25 buildings holding 27 facilities. Five publish a power figure, totalling 55.8 MW, and not one of them is in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville or Charlestown.", "limitations": 5, "refresh": "continuous — a commercial directory", "stale_after": "2027-03-15" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "eia-residential-price-by-state", "title": "Residential electricity price by state, monthly, 2019–2026", "eras": [ "compute", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/eia-residential-price-by-state.json", "grain": "state", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/F-compute/ai-demand/data/eia_residential_price_by_state.csv", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "What a household pays per kilowatt-hour, by state and month, from the federal Electric Power Monthly — Massachusetts, the other New England states, and the data-centre states of Virginia, Texas, Ohio and Georgia, with a US figure computed from the same sheet. It is the series that lets the chapter ask whether the places building the most data centres are the places whose bills rose most, and whether Massachusetts, which is building almost none, is paying anyway.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "monthly, with each Electric Power Monthly", "stale_after": "2027-01-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "epoch-training-frontier", "title": "Training compute, cost and power of notable AI models, 2012–2026 (Epoch AI)", "eras": [ "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/epoch-training-frontier.json", "grain": "none", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/F-compute/ai-demand/data/training_compute_frontier.csv", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "Epoch AI's estimates of how many floating-point operations, how many dollars and how many megawatts each frontier training run took — AlexNet on two consumer graphics cards, GPT-3 on ten thousand, Grok 3 on eighty thousand at about 110 megawatts. It is the series that turns the scaling premise into a power figure, and it carries Epoch's own confidence grade on every row.", "limitations": 2, "refresh": "with Epoch's database", "stale_after": "2027-03-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "ev-charging-candidate-sites", "title": "EV charging candidate sites, City of Boston suitability analysis", "eras": [ "distributed-energy" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/ev-charging-candidate-sites.json", "grain": "point", "format": "geojson", "file": "data/ev_candidates.geojson", "record_count": 612, "bytes": 165131, "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The 612 sites the City scored for future curbside charging, with its tier ranking and its environmental-justice and multi-unit-housing flags. A record of where the city intends new load to appear.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "static — a published analysis", "stale_after": "2027-09-15" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "ev-charging-city-owned", "title": "City-owned EV charging sites, Boston", "eras": [ "distributed-energy" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/ev-charging-city-owned.json", "grain": "point", "format": "geojson", "file": "data/ev_city.geojson", "record_count": 28, "bytes": 15068, "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The 28 charging sites the City owns or is installing, with ports installed and planned — the public sector's own footprint against the commercial one.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "continuous", "stale_after": "2027-03-15" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "ev-charging-public-2023", "title": "Publicly accessible EV charging stations, Boston, April 2023", "eras": [ "distributed-energy" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/ev-charging-public-2023.json", "grain": "point", "format": "geojson", "file": "data/ev_public_2023.geojson", "record_count": 425, "bytes": 222788, "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The City of Boston's snapshot of publicly accessible charging in the city — 425 stations, 949 Level 2 ports and 62 DC fast ports — each matched to the distribution circuit running nearest it.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "the City service is live, but this layer is a dated April 2023 extract", "stale_after": "2026-12-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "ev-charging-walkshed", "title": "Charging walkshed, City of Boston", "eras": [ "distributed-energy" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/ev-charging-walkshed.json", "grain": "municipality", "format": "geojson", "file": "data/ev_walkshed.geojson", "record_count": 1, "bytes": 30335, "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The area the City considers within walking distance of public charging — the coverage boundary against which gaps in the network are argued.", "limitations": 2, "refresh": "static", "stale_after": "2027-09-15" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "ev-registrations-by-municipality", "title": "Plug-in vehicle registrations by Massachusetts municipality, 2020–2026", "eras": [ "distributed-energy", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/ev-registrations-by-municipality.json", "grain": "municipality", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/17-ev-adoption/mvc_ev_by_municipality_quarter.csv", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "Quarterly counts of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles registered in every Massachusetts municipality, with the total fleet they sit inside. It is the one measure of the energy transition in this atlas that arrives at the grain a person lives at — their own town — and it is what lets an address lookup say how fast electric vehicles are actually arriving where the reader is.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "quarterly", "stale_after": "2027-03-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "eversource-distribution-circuits", "title": "Eversource distribution circuits, Greater Boston", "eras": [ "distributed-energy", "heat-pump", "compute", "colocation" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/eversource-distribution-circuits.json", "grain": "feeder", "format": "geojson", "file": "data/feeders.geojson", "record_count": 1062, "bytes": 4291496, "redistributable": "unclear", "line": "Every distribution circuit Eversource publishes geometry for in the study area — 1,026 circuits — with its voltage, its distributed-generation hosting capacity, its supply substation and whether it is part of the downtown secondary network. This is the atlas's spine: every other layer is joined to it. The file holds 1,062 records because 36 circuits run at two voltages and carry one record per voltage.", "limitations": 7, "refresh": "continuous — Eversource updates the service as interconnections are approved", "stale_after": "2027-03-15" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "gas-ldc-territories", "title": "Gas local distribution company service territories, Massachusetts", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/dataset/gas-ldc-territories.json", "grain": "municipality", "format": "geojson", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/15-gas-ldc-territories/gas_ldc_territories_ma.geojson", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "Which gas utility serves which ground. It matters to the atlas because Boston and Cambridge are served by different companies, so the gas retirement that becomes an electric load event is being decided in two different sets of dockets.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "none — the source has not been reissued since 2017", "stale_after": "none" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "historical-atlases-lmec", "title": "Historical fire-insurance and urban atlases of Boston, 1798–1938", "eras": [ "lighting", "traction", "appliance" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/historical-atlases-lmec.json", "grain": "none", "format": "json", "file": "data/atlases.json", "record_count": 41, "bytes": 26125, "redistributable": "unclear", "line": "Forty-one georeferenced atlas volumes with direct tile endpoints, letting the reader put an 1898 plate over the present city and find the power station on it.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "static; the Leventhal may add volumes", "stale_after": "2027-09-15" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "historical-images", "title": "Rights-cleared historical photographs", "eras": [ "lighting", "traction", "appliance", "cooling" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/historical-images.json", "grain": "none", "format": "json", "file": "data/images.json", "record_count": 15, "bytes": 10356, "redistributable": "unclear", "line": "Fifteen photographs shipped with the reading, each with its repository, its item URL and its rights statement — including three that may not be cropped and are therefore shown whole.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "static", "stale_after": "none" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "historical-power-sites", "title": "Historical generating stations and power sites, Boston", "eras": [ "lighting", "traction" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/historical-power-sites.json", "grain": "point", "format": "geojson", "file": "data/sites_historical.geojson", "record_count": 7, "bytes": 8775, "redistributable": "created-here", "line": "Seven located power sites of the lighting and streetcar eras, each tied to the atlas plate on which it can be seen. It is a thin layer and is published thin rather than padded.", "limitations": 5, "refresh": "none — historical", "stale_after": "none" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "isone-generator-list", "title": "ISO-NE generator list, three CELT vintages, and what vanished between them", "eras": [ "cooling", "colocation", "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/isone-generator-list.json", "grain": "municipality", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/14-generators/isone_generator_list_celt_vintages.csv", "redistributable": "unclear", "line": "Every generating asset ISO New England listed in its 2015, 2025 and 2026 CELT workbooks, plus the 189 in the Boston area and the 501 that appear in one vintage and not the next. It is how the atlas shows that generation left Boston — and it is the layer that most needs its caveat read.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "annual, with each CELT vintage", "stale_after": "2027-06-01" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "isone-seasonal-peaks", "title": "New England seasonal peak demand, 1985–2046", "eras": [ "cooling", "gas-heat", "distributed-energy", "heat-pump", "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/isone-seasonal-peaks.json", "grain": "region", "format": "csv", "file": "data/chart_peaks.csv", "record_count": 80, "bytes": 6315, "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The chart series behind the whole argument: summer and winter peak demand for New England, across four reporting bases kept explicitly separate, from the earliest Boston Edison figures on record here to the 2046 forecast horizon.", "limitations": 5, "refresh": "annual — a new CELT vintage each spring", "stale_after": "2027-06-01" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "large-load-queues", "title": "Large-load queues, contracts and forecasts by region, 2023–2026", "eras": [ "compute" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/dataset/large-load-queues.json", "grain": "region", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/F-compute/ai-demand/data/large_load_queues.csv", "redistributable": "created-here", "line": "The figures each grid operator and utility publishes for the load that wants to connect — Texas's queue, PJM's forecast revisions, Dominion's contracts, AEP's signed agreements, and New England's 285 megawatts — kept as separate counts because they are not the same thing. Texas has 438 gigawatts of requests against an all-time peak of 85; New England has one data centre in its forecast.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "quarterly, as operators report", "stale_after": "2027-03-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "legislative-districts-2021", "title": "State House, State Senate and U.S. Congressional districts, 2021 redistricting", "eras": [ "heat-pump", "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/legislative-districts-2021.json", "grain": "none", "format": "geojson", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/21-districts/raw/house_2021.geojson", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The districts a resident of the frame votes in, with the sitting member's name as the boundary file carries it. They are on the map so that 'who should I talk to' has a spatial answer: the DPU answers to the legislature, and the legislature is elected from these polygons.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "boundaries every ten years; member names when MassGIS republishes", "stale_after": "2027-01-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "ma-electricity-by-class-1927", "title": "Massachusetts electricity by class of service, 1927", "eras": [ "traction", "appliance" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/ma-electricity-by-class-1927.json", "grain": "state", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/16-end-use-load/ma_electricity_by_class_of_service_1927_1937.csv", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "One year, and the only year before 1960 with a full Massachusetts breakdown of where the electricity went — including street and interurban railways as a named class, which is the traction era measured rather than asserted. It exists as a single column because the printing of the state returns stopped.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "none — historical", "stale_after": "none" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "ma-electricity-by-sector", "title": "Massachusetts electricity sales by sector, 1960–2024", "eras": [ "appliance", "cooling", "gas-heat", "colocation", "heat-pump", "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/ma-electricity-by-sector.json", "grain": "state", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/16-end-use-load/seds_ma_electricity_by_sector_1960_2024.csv", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The only continuous long-run series of electricity actually consumed that reaches Massachusetts at all. It is the spine of the atlas’s time axis and the thing that makes a streamgraph of load composition possible — at STATE grain, which is not the atlas’s frame, and the chart that uses it says so on its face.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "annual, each summer", "stale_after": "2027-09-30" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "ne-datacenter-pipeline", "title": "Data-centre proposals, refusals and moratoria in New England, 2021–2026, as points", "eras": [ "compute" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/dataset/ne-datacenter-pipeline.json", "grain": "point", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/F-compute/ai-demand/data/new_england_datacenter_pipeline.csv", "redistributable": "created-here", "line": "Every AI or hyperscale data-centre project found in the six states — proposed, operating, stopped — and every town that has voted a ban, a bylaw or a moratorium against them, one row per place with a coordinate. Read together they are the region's answer to the build-out so far: a 350-megawatt exploration at a retired coal plant in New Hampshire, a handful of proposals that stalled or were refused, and a spreading map of towns closing the door before anyone knocked.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "continuous — moratoria are being voted monthly", "stale_after": "2026-12-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "nvidia-datacenter-revenue", "title": "NVIDIA Data Center revenue by quarter, 2022–2026 — the demand curve as the seller reports it", "eras": [ "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/nvidia-datacenter-revenue.json", "grain": "none", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/F-compute/ai-demand/data/nvidia_datacenter_revenue_quarterly.csv", "redistributable": "unclear", "line": "The one line that records the AI build-out from the supplier's side: what NVIDIA booked each quarter for data-centre chips and systems, read from its eighteen earnings releases. It stepped from $4.3 billion to $10.3 billion in the quarter ending July 2023, eight months after ChatGPT, and reached $89 billion in the quarter ending July 2026.", "limitations": 2, "refresh": "quarterly", "stale_after": "2026-12-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "peaks-1950-2025", "title": "Reconstructed New England and Boston Edison peaks, 1950–2025", "eras": [ "appliance", "cooling" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/dataset/peaks-1950-2025.json", "grain": "region", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/H-peakflip/peaks_1950_2025.csv", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The attempt to push the peak record back before ISO New England existed, assembled from utility annual reports and pool filings. It is in the atlas mainly as evidence of how far back the public record actually goes — which is not as far as the argument needs.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "none — historical", "stale_after": "none" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "pjm-capacity-auction", "title": "PJM capacity auctions 2024/25–2028/29, with the market monitor's data-centre attribution", "eras": [ "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/pjm-capacity-auction.json", "grain": "none", "format": "csv", "repo_path": "research/F-compute/ai-demand/data/pjm_capacity_auction.csv", "redistributable": "unclear", "line": "What the mid-Atlantic grid's capacity auctions charged each delivery year, and how much of that charge the Independent Market Monitor attributes to data-centre load — $9.3 billion of $14.7 billion in 2025/26, $29.4 billion across four auctions. It is the series behind the bill increases that New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia regulators passed through in 2025, and the clearest measured case of a load's cost landing on everyone else.", "limitations": 2, "refresh": "with each Base Residual Auction", "stale_after": "2027-08-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "solar-installs-by-municipality", "title": "Solar installations by municipality, with year of installation", "eras": [ "distributed-energy" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/solar-installs-by-municipality.json", "grain": "municipality", "format": "geojson", "file": "data/towns_solar.geojson", "record_count": 68, "bytes": 120668, "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The same MassCEC record aggregated to the 68 cities and towns of the study area, carrying a per-year series so the growth of distributed generation can be read against the peak chart.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "MassCEC republishes periodically, superseding in place", "stale_after": "2027-01-14" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "solar-installs-by-zip", "title": "Solar installations by ZIP code", "eras": [ "distributed-energy" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/solar-installs-by-zip.json", "grain": "zip", "format": "geojson", "file": "data/solar_zips.geojson", "record_count": 94, "bytes": 155601, "redistributable": "yes", "line": "Every solar photovoltaic installation MassCEC tracks in the study area, aggregated to the finest geography MassCEC publishes: the ZIP code. 23,733 installations, 381,970 kW.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "MassCEC republishes periodically, superseding in place", "stale_after": "2027-01-14" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "substations-hifld", "title": "Electric substations, Greater Boston", "eras": [ "traction", "appliance", "cooling", "compute" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/dataset/substations-hifld.json", "grain": "substation", "format": "geojson", "file": "data/substations.geojson", "record_count": 65, "bytes": 14576, "redistributable": "yes", "line": "Substation points clipped from the national HIFLD layer to the study area. Used to show where the distribution circuits originate and, in the reading, to make the point that Mystic substation outlived the generating station it was named for.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "annual, irregular", "stale_after": "2027-09-15" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "tracts-gsep-equity", "title": "Census tracts with gas infrastructure, leaks and energy burden", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/tracts-gsep-equity.json", "grain": "tract", "format": "geojson", "file": "data/tracts.geojson", "record_count": 591, "bytes": 635011, "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The study area's census tracts carrying, on one geography, the leak-prone gas pipe that is being replaced, the leaks themselves, and the income, tenure, race and energy-burden variables that say who lives above them. This is the social join for the whole atlas.", "limitations": 5, "refresh": "ACS annual; LEAD superseded in place without notice; GSEP deposit static", "stale_after": "2027-09-15" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "transmission-lines-hifld", "title": "Electric transmission lines, Greater Boston", "eras": [ "traction", "appliance", "cooling", "compute" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/dataset/transmission-lines-hifld.json", "grain": "region", "format": "geojson", "file": "data/transmission.geojson", "record_count": 179, "bytes": 173397, "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The high-voltage lines that deliver into the study area's substations, clipped from the national HIFLD layer. Context for the distribution spine: the scale at which power arrives, before it becomes a circuit.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "annual, irregular", "stale_after": "2027-09-15" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "utility-of-record", "title": "Utility of record by municipality — who owns the wires and the mains", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "distributed-energy", "heat-pump", "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/utility-of-record.json", "grain": "municipality", "format": "json", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/20-utility-of-record/raw/ElectricityProviders_by_town.json", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "For each of the 68 municipalities, the electric distribution company and the gas distribution company the Department of Public Utilities lists as serving it, as of October 2025. It is the answer to 'who manages the grid here' in the only sense that is public: the company that owns the poles, bills for delivery and answers the outage. It says nothing about who a household buys its supply from, which in Boston and Cambridge is usually the city's aggregation programme unless the household opted out.", "limitations": 4, "refresh": "the DPU republishes irregularly; the layer description carries its own as-of date", "stale_after": "2027-10-31" }, { "type": "dataset", "id": "wards-precincts-2022", "title": "Wards and precincts, 2022, for the 68 municipalities", "eras": [ "heat-pump", "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/dataset/wards-precincts-2022.json", "grain": "none", "format": "geojson", "repo_path": "research/D-datasets/21-districts/raw/wards_precincts_2022.geojson", "redistributable": "yes", "line": "The smallest electoral unit — the room a resident votes in — for every municipality in the frame that has them. A precinct is the grain at which a city council, a town meeting and a state representative can all be addressed, and it is the finest civic polygon the Commonwealth publishes.", "limitations": 3, "refresh": "every ten years, or when a municipality re-precincts", "stale_after": "2032-12-31" }, { "type": "decision", "id": "1997-restructuring-act", "title": "Electric Restructuring Act of 1997 and the sale of Boston Edison's fossil fleet", "eras": [ "cooling", "colocation" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/1997-restructuring-act.json", "date": "1997-11-25", "instrument": "statute", "body": "Massachusetts General Court (act); Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy — Commissioners Besser, Patrone, Connelly, Keating, Vasington (divestiture order)", "line": "Chapter 164 of the Acts of 1997, approved 25 November 1997 as an emergency law, unbundled the Massachusetts electric utility: retail customers gained \"the right to choose their electric power supplier,\" incumbent companies were pushed to…", "who_paid": "Who paid: all distribution ratepayers, through the non-bypassable access/transition charge. That charge is still collected. The current tariff, M.D.P.U. No. 49B, states that \"The Transition Cost…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 4 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "bery-charter-self-generation", "title": "The Boston Elevated Railway charter and the legal basis for traction self-generation", "eras": [ "traction" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/decision/bery-charter-self-generation.json", "date": "1894", "instrument": "statute", "body": "Massachusetts General Court", "line": "IMPORTANT CORRECTION TO THE PROJECT ANCHOR. The brief describes \"the 1897 BERy charter (an Act of 1897).\" The primary sequence is two acts, not one. The Boston Elevated Railway Company was incorporated by **Chapter 548 of the Acts of…", "who_paid": "Not established, because the decision itself is not established. The claim the reading needs — that the railway was empowered to generate its own electricity rather than buy it — has no located…", "has_absence": true, "open_items": 4 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "board-of-gas-commissioners", "title": "The Board of Gas Commissioners (1885) and its extension to electric light (1887)", "eras": [ "lighting" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/board-of-gas-commissioners.json", "date": "1885", "instrument": "statute", "body": "Massachusetts General Court", "line": "In 1885 the Massachusetts General Court created the Board of Gas Commissioners by Chapter 314 of the Acts of 1885 — a standing state body with supervision over gas companies, powers to examine their works, and a mandatory annual return…", "who_paid": "Who paid: the companies paid the Board's expenses directly under Section 4, and passed them through in rates; the ratepayer funded the regulator from the beginning. The deeper transfer was of…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 3 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "boston-berdo", "title": "BERDO — Boston orders its large buildings to report energy (2013) and then to reach zero emissions by 2050 (2021)", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/boston-berdo.json", "date": "2013-05-08", "instrument": "statute", "body": "Boston City Council (2013: Committee on Government Operations report, passed 8 May 2013, attested by City Clerk Maureen Feeney; 2021: Docket #0775 sponsored by Councilor Matt O'Malley, Committee on Government Operations chaired by Lydia Edwards, passed 22 September 2021); Mayor Thomas M. Menino (approval signature, 2013); Mayor Martin J. Walsh (2014 amendment message); Acting Mayor Kim Janey (signature, October 2021 — secondary); enforced by the Air Pollution Control Commission and, from 2021, the BERDO Review Board", "line": "Two instruments, eight years apart, both amending Chapter VII, Section 7-2.2 of the City of Boston Code. The first, proposed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino as Docket #0340 (filed 27 February 2013) and re-filed as Docket #0726 (filed in the City…", "who_paid": "The Owner, by the ordinance's own terms. Reporting fines run $150 or $300 a day and emissions-standard fines $300 or $1,000 a day by size tier; a building that cannot meet its Table 1 ceiling pays an…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 6 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "boston-carbon-neutrality-2050", "title": "Carbon neutral by 2050 — a mayoral announcement (2017) and a plan (2019), given legal form only piecemeal: a Council resolution (2020), BERDO's Table 1 (2021), and three executive orders on the City's own buildings and governance (2019, 2023, 2024)", "eras": [ "heat-pump", "compute" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/decision/boston-carbon-neutrality-2050.json", "date": "2017-01-01", "instrument": "executive-order", "body": "Mayor Martin J. Walsh (2017 announcement; 2019 Climate Action Plan Update; executive order of 11 December 2019); Boston City Council (Resolution, Docket #0229 of 2020, offered by Councilor Matt O'Malley, adopted 15 January 2020); Mayor Michelle Wu (executive orders of 31 July 2023 and October 2024, issued \"Pursuant to St. 1948, c. 452, s. 11\")", "line": "The City's own FY20 Climate Action Report is the cleanest statement of origin: \"In his 2017 State of the City address, Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced the City's goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. This commitment underpins the City's 2019…", "who_paid": "No one, until an ordinance named a payer. The 2050 commitment traces to a 2017 State of the City address and a 2019 plan, neither an instrument; the Council's 2020 act is a resolution, which…", "has_absence": true, "open_items": 5 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "boston-community-choice-electricity", "title": "Boston Community Choice Electricity — the City becomes the default electricity buyer for every Eversource basic-service customer inside its borders", "eras": [ "distributed-energy", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/boston-community-choice-electricity.json", "date": "2017-08-02", "instrument": "order", "body": "Boston City Council (order offered by Councilors Michelle Wu and Matt O'Malley, adopted 2 August 2017, with the Mayor's approval as G.L. c. 164, § 134(a) requires); Mayor Martin J. Walsh (the Plan makes \"the Mayor or the Mayor's designee ... responsible for all Program decisions\"); Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities — Chair Matthew H. Nelson, Commissioner Robert E. Hayden, Commissioner Cecile M. Fraser (orders of 22 July 2020 and 15 December 2022); Hearing Officer Sarah Smegal; Colonial Power Group, Inc. as the City's agent and consultant; Constellation NewEnergy (first supplier), Direct Energy Services (supplier from December 2023)", "line": "The chain runs Council → Mayor → DPU → contract. On 2 August 2017 the City Council adopted Docket #1063, offered by Councilors Michelle Wu and Matt O'Malley: \"That the Boston City Council hereby authorizes Mayor Martin J. Walsh to direct…", "who_paid": "The participant, per kilowatt-hour, on the supply line of the Eversource bill: the City's contract price plus two adders the DPU allowed — a consultant adder fixed at $0.0007 per kWh for Colonial…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 5 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "boston-fossil-fuel-free-home-rule-petition", "title": "Fossil-fuel-free new construction — Boston petitions the Legislature for authority (2022), is not among the ten demonstration communities, and withdraws (2023)", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/boston-fossil-fuel-free-home-rule-petition.json", "date": "2022-08-16", "instrument": "order", "body": "Mayor Michelle Wu (petition sponsor); Boston City Council (Docket #1017, Committee on Government Operations chaired by Ruthzee Louijeune; passed 14 September 2022, yeas 9, nays 3 — Baker, Flaherty, Murphy); Representative Jay D. Livingstone (House sponsor of H.5317); Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, Commissioner Elizabeth Mahony (regulation 225 CMR 24.00 under St. 2022, c. 179, § 84)", "line": "This is a decision that produced an instrument but no law. On 16 August 2022 Mayor Wu transmitted \"a home rule petition to the General Court entitled 'Petition for a Special Law Re: An Act Authorizing the City of Boston to Establish Fossil…", "who_paid": "Nobody, which is the finding: the petition authorises nothing and so allocates nothing, and the law it asked for was never granted. The one fossil-fuel-free rule in force in Boston is Mayor Wu's…", "has_absence": true, "open_items": 5 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "boston-net-zero-carbon-zoning", "title": "Net Zero Carbon Zoning — Article 37 amended so that new large buildings must be designed to a zero-emissions standard from the day they open", "eras": [ "heat-pump", "compute" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/decision/boston-net-zero-carbon-zoning.json", "date": "2024-06-13", "instrument": "regulation", "body": "Boston Planning & Development Agency Board of Directors (13 June 2024); Boston Zoning Commission (hearing and vote 29 January 2025, Text Amendment Application No. 527); Mayor Michelle Wu (approval under the Zoning Enabling Act, St. 1956, c. 665 — signature not seen); enforced by the Inspectional Services Department through the Planning Department's Certification of Compliance", "line": "The amendment moves BERDO's emissions table forward from existing buildings to the drawing board. The Planning Department's July 2025 implementation guideline describes the instrument as \"Article 37 Green Buildings and Net Zero Carbon,…", "who_paid": "The instrument does not allocate the cost. It falls on the applicant — the developer and then the owner — through the permit condition: no building permit issues without the Planning Department's…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 6 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "boston-specialized-stretch-code", "title": "Specialized Stretch Energy Code — Boston opts in to the state's net-zero building code for all new construction from 1 January 2024", "eras": [ "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/boston-specialized-stretch-code.json", "date": "2023-04-05", "instrument": "order", "body": "Mayor Michelle Wu (transmittal message of 20 March 2023 and signature); Boston City Council (Docket #0606, passed 5 April 2023 after a report of the Committee on Government Operations); Corporation Counsel Adam Cederbaum (form certification); Inspectional Services Department (enforcement, per the order); the code itself is the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources' Municipal Opt-in Specialized Stretch Energy Code, 225 CMR 22.00 and 23.00 with Appendices RC and CC, issued under G.L. c. 25A, § 6", "line": "On 20 March 2023 Mayor Michelle Wu wrote to the Council: \"I hereby transmit for your approval an Ordinance adopting the Department of Energy Resources' Municipal Opt-in Specialized Stretch Energy Code. The Specialized Stretch Energy Code…", "who_paid": "The instrument does not allocate the cost. It names an enforcer, the Inspectional Services Department, and an effective date, and imports the state's 225 CMR 22.00 and 23.00 with their appendices…", "has_absence": true, "open_items": 5 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "cambridge-article-22-green-building", "title": "Article 22 Green Building Requirements — every project of 25,000 sq ft must be designed to LEED (2010), then to LEED Gold or Passive House with a net-zero narrative (2019), then to show a fossil-fuel-free feasibility study (2020) and embodied carbon (2023)", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/cambridge-article-22-green-building.json", "date": "2010-08-02", "instrument": "regulation", "body": "Cambridge City Council — 1333: \"Passed to be ordained as amended by a yea and nay vote: Yeas 9; Nays 0; Absent 0,\" attest D. Margaret Drury, City Clerk; 1412: \"Ordained 9-0\" on a petition transmitted by City Manager Louis A. DePasquale; 2020-10: \"Ordained 9-0\" on Policy Order O-10 of 22 June 2020 by Councillor Dennis J. Carlone; 2022-20: \"Ordained as amended by a yea and nay vote: Yeas 9; Nays 0; Absent 0,\" attest Diane P. LeBlanc, City Clerk; administered by the Community Development Department (Assistant City Manager Iram Farooq) with Planning Board hearings on each petition", "line": "Ordinance No. 1333 of 2 August 2010, \"Passed to be ordained as amended by a yea and nay vote: Yeas 9; Nays 0; Absent 0,\" created \"a new Article 22.000 Sustainable Design and Development, to promote environmentally sustainable and energy…", "who_paid": "The developer or owner of the Green Building Project, entirely: the rating-system design to LEED Gold or Passive House, the Green Building Professional, the Green Commissioning Authority, the energy…", "has_absence": true, "open_items": 4 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "cambridge-beudo", "title": "BEUDO — large Cambridge buildings must report energy use (2014), then cut emissions to zero on a fixed schedule (2023)", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/cambridge-beudo.json", "date": "2014-07-28", "instrument": "statute", "body": "Cambridge City Council — 2014: \"Yeas 9; Nays 0; Absent 0\", attest Donna P. Lopez, City Clerk; 2023: \"Yeas 8; Nays 0; Absent 0; Present 1\", attest Diane P. LeBlanc, City Clerk (the \"Present\" was Councillor E. Denise Simmons, per the agenda mirror). Chief Enforcement Officer: the Assistant City Manager for Community Development (Iram Farooq in 2023). The 2023 clarifying text was transmitted by City Manager Yi-An Huang (CM23#191).", "line": "On 28 July 2014 the City Council ordained Ordinance No. 1360, \"Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance,\" 9-0, adding Chapter 8.67 to the Municipal Code [CS01, vote block p. 8; CS04]. It defined a \"Covered Property\" as a parcel with…", "who_paid": "The Covered Property Owner: the retrofit, the third-party verification, an Alternative Compliance Credit of $234 a tonne in the first compliance period, or after a warning a fine of up to $300 a day.…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 4 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "cambridge-community-electricity", "title": "Cambridge Community Electricity — the City becomes the default electricity buyer for every Basic Service customer, paid for by two per-kWh adders on the bill", "eras": [ "distributed-energy", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/cambridge-community-electricity.json", "date": "2016-06-06", "instrument": "order", "body": "Cambridge City Council, City Manager Agenda Item #13 of 6 June 2016, \"Adopted by the affirmative vote of nine members,\" with the approval of City Manager Richard C. Rossi; Department of Public Utilities — Angela M. O'Connor, Chairman; Jolette A. Westbrook, Commissioner; Robert E. Hayden, Commissioner; hearing officer Lauren Morris; for the City, Nancy Glowa and Sean McKendry, Law Department; consultants Peregrine Energy Group and Bay State Consultants; suppliers Agera Energy LLC (2017–2019) and, currently, Direct Energy Services, LLC; contracts signed by the City \"by and through its City Manager\" (Louis A. DePasquale in 2017)", "line": "The local act is one sentence: \"The City Council, with the approval of the City Manager, hereby authorizes the City of Cambridge to initiate the process of aggregating the electric load of consumers within the City pursuant to M.G.L.…", "who_paid": "The participating customer, on the supply line of the Eversource bill: the contract price plus two adders that the supplier remits — $0.00075 per kilowatt-hour to the consultant, Peregrine Energy…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 4 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "cambridge-fossil-fuel-free-demonstration", "title": "Fossil Fuel-Free Demonstration — Cambridge petitions the Legislature (2021–22), is sixth on DOER's list of ten, and from 22 March 2024 bans fossil-fuel equipment in new buildings and major renovations", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/cambridge-fossil-fuel-free-demonstration.json", "date": "2021-12-13", "instrument": "statute", "body": "Cambridge City Council (home-rule order 9-0; Ordinance 2023-3 \"Ordained as Amended 7-1-0-1 (PT-No; DS-Present)\" — Councillor Paul Toner No, Councillor E. Denise Simmons Present, Councillor Alanna Mallon absent for reconsideration); the General Court, on the petition of Representative Mike Connolly (26th Middlesex) and Senator Patricia D. Jehlen (Second Middlesex) \"with the approval of the city council\"; Governor's approval of Chapter 179 on August 11, 2022; DOER Commissioner Elizabeth Mahony transmitted the draft 225 CMR 24.00 to the House Clerk on May 10, 2023; City Manager Yi-An Huang transmitted the pilot ordinance (CM23#190, June 26, 2023); enforcement by the Commissioner of Inspectional Services", "line": "The chain has four links. First, on 13 December 2021 the Council adopted 9-0, as amended, an order whose recitals say \"The Cambridge Net Zero Action Plan adopted by the City Council in 2015 requires the City to establish a net zero…", "who_paid": "The developer or renovating owner, for the all-electric systems and the electrical service to run them, and through the market the buyer or tenant. Neither the ordinance nor the enabling statute puts…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 5 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "cambridge-net-zero-action-plan", "title": "Net Zero Action Plan — the Council \"goes on record adopting\" a 25-year plan to zero out building emissions (2015); the 2023 update was received, not re-adopted", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/decision/cambridge-net-zero-action-plan.json", "date": "2015-06-22", "instrument": "order", "body": "Cambridge City Council — Order O-2 sponsored by Councillor Leland Cheung; Order O-14 by Councillors Marc McGovern and Leland Cheung, adopted together with Committee Report #2 (Health and Environment Committee, chair Cheung, hearing of 9 June 2015). Plan prepared for the Getting to Net Zero Task Force under City Manager Richard C. Rossi (letter) and Deputy City Manager Lisa Peterson; Mayor David P. Maher; CDD: Brian P. Murphy and Iram Farooq. 2023 update transmitted by City Manager Yi-An Huang after review by the Council's Health and Environment Committee (chair Councillor Patricia Nolan).", "line": "The Net Zero Action Plan is a policy, not a regulation: the instrument is a Council order going \"on record.\" At the meeting of 22 June 2015 the agenda carried Order #2, \"That the City Council go on record adopting the Net Zero Action Plan…", "who_paid": "The instrument does not allocate the cost, and imposes nothing on any address by itself. Its force is that every later Cambridge energy instrument cites it: BEUDO's purpose clause, Article 22's…", "has_absence": true, "open_items": 4 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "cambridge-specialized-stretch-code", "title": "Specialized Stretch Energy Code — the Council opts Cambridge into the state's net-zero code appendices, so new buildings must be all-electric or wired to become so from 1 July 2023", "eras": [ "heat-pump" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/decision/cambridge-specialized-stretch-code.json", "date": "2023-01-23", "instrument": "order", "body": "Cambridge City Council — Policy Order O-4 of 9 January 2023 sponsored by Councillor Patricia Nolan, Councillor Quinton Zondervan and Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui; on 23 January 2023 \"Toner motion to Table Failed 2-7 (DS,PT-YES); Order Adopted 7-1-0-1 (DS-PRESENT, PT-NO)\" — Councillor Paul Toner No, Councillor E. Denise Simmons Present; City Manager Yi-An Huang transmitted the staff communication CM23#13 the same night the order was filed; the code is enforced by the Commissioner of Inspectional Services; the regulations are the Department of Energy Resources' 225 CMR 22.00 and 23.00 under St. 2021, c. 8, § 31", "line": "The Specialized Code is a state regulation a municipality may switch on by vote; the Cambridge act is a policy order, not an ordinance. The order recites: \"In 2009, the Cambridge City Council voted to adopt the Stretch Energy Code in order…", "who_paid": "Whoever pulls the permit — the developer, and behind them the buyer or tenant. The order is a policy order that switches on a state regulation; it allocates nothing, creates no fee and puts no charge…", "has_absence": true, "open_items": 5 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "connectedsolutions", "title": "ConnectedSolutions — paying customer batteries to shave the peak", "eras": [ "distributed-energy", "cooling" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/connectedsolutions.json", "date": "2019-01-29", "instrument": "order", "body": "Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities — 2025 order by Chair Van Nostrand, Commissioner Fraser and Commissioner Rubin; programs designed by the Program Administrators with the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council", "line": "ConnectedSolutions has never been approved by a standalone order; it is a line inside the statewide three-year energy efficiency plan, filed under G.L. c. 25, § 21 and approved by the Department of Public Utilities plan term by plan term.…", "who_paid": "Who paid: all electric distribution customers, through the Energy Efficiency Charge. The collection tariff is M.D.P.U. No. 50G, which recovers \"all costs associated with energy efficiency\" and is…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 0 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "declining-block-rates", "title": "The appliance rate — pricing electricity by what it was used for, 1921–1922", "eras": [ "appliance" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/declining-block-rates.json", "date": "1921", "instrument": "rate-schedule", "body": "Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston, schedule filed with and reprinted by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities; accounts prescribed by the Department of Public Utilities", "line": "On 30 June 1921 the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston's\nfiled prices stood as the Department of Public Utilities reprinted them, and they were not what\nthis card originally claimed. **Household lighting was flat: \"for…", "who_paid": "The household that used electricity only for light. Boston Edison's filed schedule of 30 June 1921, as reprinted by the Department of Public Utilities, priced household lighting FLAT at 10 cents net…", "has_absence": true, "open_items": 6 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "dpu-20-80", "title": "DPU 20-80 — the future of gas, and the demonstration projects it ordered", "eras": [ "gas-heat", "heat-pump" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/dpu-20-80.json", "date": "2020-10-29", "instrument": "order", "body": "Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities — 2023 order by Chair James M. Van Nostrand, Commissioner Cecile M. Fraser, Commissioner Staci Rubin", "line": "D.P.U. 20-80 is an \"Investigation by the Department of Public Utilities on its own Motion into the role of gas local distribution companies as the Commonwealth achieves its target 2050 climate goals,\" opened by vote and order of 29 October…", "who_paid": "Who paid: ratepayers, on both sides of the meter. The order's own framing puts \"how investment is recovered, and stranded assets\" among the questions to be resolved; a gas system decommissioned…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 5 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "edison-boston-street-franchise", "title": "Permission to lay wires in Boston's streets — the Edison Electric Illuminating Company and the aldermanic consent rule", "eras": [ "lighting" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/edison-boston-street-franchise.json", "date": "1885", "instrument": "statute", "body": "Massachusetts General Court (the rule); City of Boston Board of Aldermen / City Council (the individual grants)", "line": "The general rule was set by the state, and the individual permissions were granted by the city. Chapter 382 of the Acts of 1887 — the same act that made the Board of Gas Commissioners a Board of Gas and Electric Light Commissioners —…", "who_paid": "Who paid: the public paid in kind, ceding the subsurface and the airspace of its streets at no rent; the company paid the construction cost and recovered it from lighting customers; and every later…", "has_absence": true, "open_items": 3 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "eversource-ev-make-ready", "title": "Eversource EV make-ready — the Phase II Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program", "eras": [ "distributed-energy" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/eversource-ev-make-ready.json", "date": "2022-12-30", "instrument": "order", "body": "Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities — Chair Nelson, Commissioners Hayden and Fraser; Hearing Officer Scott Seigal", "line": "On 30 December 2022 the Department of Public Utilities, by Chair Nelson with Commissioners Hayden and Fraser, issued a single 285-page order in three consolidated dockets: D.P.U. 21-90, the \"Petition of NSTAR Electric Company d/b/a…", "who_paid": "Who paid: all NSTAR Electric distribution ratepayers. \"NSTAR Electric proposes to recover its Phase II EV program costs through its existing annual reconciling GMF\" — the Grid Modernization Factor —…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 4 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "gas-leaks-act-gsep", "title": "The Gas Leaks Act and the Gas System Enhancement Program — and the 2024 act that pointed it at geothermal", "eras": [ "gas-heat" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/gas-leaks-act-gsep.json", "date": "2014-06-26", "instrument": "statute", "body": "Massachusetts General Court; implemented by the Department of Public Utilities through annual plan filings", "line": "Chapter 149 of the Acts of 2014, \"An Act Relative to Natural Gas Leaks,\" approved 26 June 2014, created the Gas System Enhancement Program by inserting section 145 into chapter 164 of the General Laws, effective 1 October 2014. The…", "who_paid": "Who paid: gas distribution ratepayers, all of them, through the GSEP rate adjustment, on a schedule set by the company's construction plan rather than by a contested revenue requirement. Then the…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 5 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "interconnection-dg-and-load", "title": "Interconnection — the distributed generation tariff, and the absence of an equivalent for load", "eras": [ "distributed-energy", "compute" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/interconnection-dg-and-load.json", "date": "2026-08-20", "instrument": "tariff", "body": "NSTAR Electric Company d/b/a Eversource Energy, on file with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities", "line": "The rulebook for attaching generation to Eversource's Massachusetts distribution system is M.D.P.U. No. 55G, \"Standards for Interconnection of Distributed Generation,\" 187 pages, filed 25 August 2026 and effective 20 August 2026. It is a…", "who_paid": "Who paid: the generator pays for the circuit it changes; the large load pays whatever the revenue test produces, and where the test is satisfied, the rate class…", "has_absence": true, "open_items": 3 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "large-customer-tariffs", "title": "What a megawatt-scale customer buys — Eversource large-customer rate classes and supply options", "eras": [ "compute", "colocation" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/large-customer-tariffs.json", "date": "2026-09-01", "instrument": "tariff", "body": "NSTAR Electric Company d/b/a Eversource Energy, on file with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities", "line": "A megawatt-scale customer in Eversource's Massachusetts territory takes service under Rate G-3, Large General Service — and the entry condition is set separately for each service area, which is itself a finding. In **Greater Boston**…", "who_paid": "Who paid: the large customer pays its own demand charges and its own transformers; everyone pays the policy surcharges per kilowatt-hour — Transition (M.D.P.U. No. 49B), Transmission (48A), Energy…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 3 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "nepool-agreement", "title": "The NEPOOL Agreement of 1971 — pooling the region's generation", "eras": [ "appliance", "cooling" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/decision/nepool-agreement.json", "date": "1971", "instrument": "agreement", "body": "The New England electric utilities (signatories); filed with and accepted by the Federal Power Commission (predecessor of FERC)", "line": "In 1971 the electric utilities of New England executed the New England Power Pool Agreement. ISO New England's own history describes what it created: \"New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) created to establish central dispatch of generation in…", "who_paid": "Who paid: the pooling arrangement was funded through the member utilities and therefore through their retail ratepayers; the savings it produced — the point of central dispatch — flowed to the same…", "has_absence": false, "open_items": 4 }, { "type": "decision", "id": "service-upgrade-cost-causation", "title": "Who pays when new load triggers a distribution upgrade — Eversource Terms and Conditions for Distribution Service", "eras": [ "compute", "heat-pump", "distributed-energy" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/decision/service-upgrade-cost-causation.json", "date": "2024-10-31", "instrument": "tariff", "body": "NSTAR Electric Company d/b/a Eversource Energy, on file with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities", "line": "The cost-causation rule is not a dramatic order; it is a standing tariff provision filed by NSTAR Electric and on file with the Department of Public Utilities, and it is written as a **revenue test administered by the company**. Section…", "who_paid": "Who paid, in one line: a single-family house gets one pole and 150 feet free and buys the rest; a large commercial customer pays whatever the company's revenue test says it owes, on terms no one else…", "has_absence": true, "open_items": 4 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "boston-edison-records-offline", "title": "Boston Edison's own records are catalogued, offsite, and unread", "eras": [ "lighting", "traction", "appliance" ], "path": "entries/gap/boston-edison-records-offline.json", "state": "needs-a-person", "severity": "blocks-a-claim", "grain_wanted": "municipality", "grain_available": "none", "line": "Nothing, in the sense that the records exist and are open for research. Everything, in the sense that none of it is online. The Boston Edison Company records at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School, run to 161 linear feet — 104 volumes, 2 boxes, 56 cartons — covering 1885 to 1954, and include production records, which are load records, plus financial and labour records, photographs, 1886–93 correspondence, and directors' and stockholders' minutes for Boston Edison and the firms it acquired.", "closes_if": "One email to specialcollectionsref@hbs.edu, then a reading-room visit with advance notice for the offsite retrieval. This is the first archival action the project should take and it has not been taken.", "who_could_close_it": "The author of this atlas", "tried": 3 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "celt-carries-no-history-tab", "title": "The forecast workbook has never carried its own history", "eras": [ "cooling", "heat-pump", "compute" ], "path": "entries/gap/celt-carries-no-history-tab.json", "state": "not-published", "severity": "inconvenient", "grain_wanted": "region", "grain_available": "region", "line": "A long historical peak series inside the CELT workbook. ISO-NE's principal published forecast document projects twenty years forward and carries no corresponding backward series.", "closes_if": "ISO-NE adds a history tab to CELT, or publishes one consolidated historical peak series with a stated basis.", "who_could_close_it": "ISO New England", "tried": 3 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "data-centre-power-undisclosed", "title": "Data centres do not publish what they draw", "eras": [ "colocation", "compute" ], "path": "entries/gap/data-centre-power-undisclosed.json", "state": "not-published", "severity": "blocks-a-claim", "grain_wanted": "building", "grain_available": "building", "line": "A power figure for each data centre building. Of the 25 buildings in the directory's Boston market, five publish one: Needham 30.0 MW, Bedford 10.0 MW, Holyoke 10.0 MW, Northborough 3.6 MW and Medford 2.2 MW. Three framings, all of them true and all stated here so that they cannot be confused: 55.8 MW across all five; 45.8 MW across the four in eastern Massachusetts, Holyoke being a western-Massachusetts consortium outside any reasonable Boston market; and, in the ten-building inner frame the reading maps — Boston, Cambridge, Charlestown, Somerville, Medford and Watertown — exactly ONE, Expedient in Medford, at 2.2 MW. Of the eight buildings in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and Charlestown alone, not one publishes anything.", "closes_if": "MassDEP air permits for backup diesel generators are public per site and are the most likely route to a defensible per-building number: generator plate ratings bound the load they exist to back up. The Lowell facility's permit proceeding shows what the record looks like when it exists. Searching MassDEP's file room, site by site, would produce the first evidence-based figures for the Boston buildings.", "who_could_close_it": "Anyone with a browser and the MassDEP file room; or the operators, or the DPU by disclosure requirement", "tried": 5 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "demand-response-enrolment-unpublished", "title": "The one programme that lowers the peak does not publish how much it lowers it", "eras": [ "cooling", "distributed-energy" ], "path": "entries/gap/demand-response-enrolment-unpublished.json", "state": "needs-a-person", "severity": "weakens-a-claim", "grain_wanted": "municipality", "grain_available": "state", "line": "ConnectedSolutions enrolment in megawatts by year, for Eversource and National Grid. The Department of Public Utilities approves the programme and the statewide plan sets the payment rates — residential behind-the-meter battery at $275/kW average performance, C&I Daily Dispatch at $200/kW, Targeted Dispatch at $45/kW — and neither publishes how many megawatts are actually enrolled.", "closes_if": "Someone opens the Massachusetts EEAC term reports, or the utilities' energy-efficiency annual reports in the DPU file room, and transcribes active demand response enrolment in MW by programme year. One afternoon of reading filings.", "who_could_close_it": "Anyone with the EEAC site; or the utilities, by publishing enrolment alongside the rates", "tried": 5 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "distributed-compute-node-draw-unpublished", "title": "Nobody has published what a household compute node draws", "eras": [ "compute" ], "path": "entries/gap/distributed-compute-node-draw-unpublished.json", "state": "not-published", "severity": "weakens-a-claim", "grain_wanted": "building", "grain_available": "none", "line": "A power figure for a single distributed-compute node of the kind now being installed in new houses. No figure has ever been published by the companies deploying them.", "closes_if": "A deployer publishes a per-node electrical specification, or a utility publishes an interconnection or load-study record for one of these installations.", "who_could_close_it": "The deploying companies, or the utility", "tried": 3 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "eia411-resolves-only-to-npcc", "title": "Federal peak data merges New England with New York", "eras": [ "cooling", "appliance" ], "path": "entries/gap/eia411-resolves-only-to-npcc.json", "state": "published-but-coarser", "severity": "limits-resolution", "grain_wanted": "region", "grain_available": "region", "line": "A federal historical peak series for New England alone. Form EIA-411's historic noncoincident peak tables resolve only to NERC region, and New England's region — NPCC — includes New York.", "closes_if": "EIA publishes balancing-authority or sub-region peak detail for the NPCC region, which it does not currently do for this series.", "who_could_close_it": "U.S. Energy Information Administration", "tried": 2 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "iso-express-captcha", "title": "Six years of peak history sit behind a CAPTCHA", "eras": [ "cooling" ], "path": "entries/gap/iso-express-captcha.json", "state": "access-blocked", "severity": "weakens-a-claim", "grain_wanted": "region", "grain_available": "region", "line": "New England annual peak demand for 1998 through 2003. ISO New England publishes it; the download that carries it is gated by a bot challenge.", "closes_if": "One person clicks through the challenge on the ISO Express download page and saves the file. It is a single human action of perhaps two minutes.", "who_could_close_it": "Anyone", "tried": 4 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "lmec-tile-reuse-terms", "title": "The historical atlas tiles carry no stated reuse licence", "eras": [ "lighting", "traction", "appliance" ], "path": "entries/gap/lmec-tile-reuse-terms.json", "state": "needs-a-person", "severity": "inconvenient", "grain_wanted": "none", "grain_available": "none", "line": "An explicit reuse licence for the Leventhal Map & Education Center's georeferenced urban atlas tiles. Attribution is required and is given; what may be done beyond display is not stated anywhere the project could find.", "closes_if": "One email to frontdesk@leventhalmap.org asking what terms apply to the georeferenced tile service.", "who_could_close_it": "The author of this atlas, then the Leventhal Map & Education Center", "tried": 3 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "ma-utility-statistics-stop-1922", "title": "Massachusetts stopped publishing per-company utility statistics after 1922", "eras": [ "appliance", "cooling" ], "path": "entries/gap/ma-utility-statistics-stop-1922.json", "state": "not-published", "severity": "blocks-a-claim", "grain_wanted": "municipality", "grain_available": "none", "line": "Per-company operating statistics for Massachusetts electric utilities after fiscal year 1922 — and, in any year, a maximum-demand or peak-load table at all.", "closes_if": "Nothing published will close it — the tables were never printed. The DPU annual returns themselves survive at the Massachusetts State Archives, and the Boston Edison Company records at Baker Library cover 1885–1954 including production records. Either is an archival visit, not a download.", "who_could_close_it": "A researcher at the Massachusetts State Archives or Baker Library", "tried": 3 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "mass-gov-blocks-automation", "title": "The Commonwealth's own website refuses automated readers", "eras": [ "compute", "heat-pump" ], "path": "entries/gap/mass-gov-blocks-automation.json", "state": "access-blocked", "severity": "weakens-a-claim", "grain_wanted": "state", "grain_available": "state", "line": "Machine access to mass.gov. The content is public and free; requests from scripted clients receive HTTP 403.", "closes_if": "Opening the pages in a browser, one at a time, closes it for any specific document. Nothing closes it in general short of the Commonwealth allowing automated access to public documents.", "who_could_close_it": "Anyone with a browser, per document; the Commonwealth, in general", "tried": 3 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "masscec-publishes-zip-only", "title": "Solar installations are published by ZIP code and no finer — except in Cambridge", "eras": [ "distributed-energy" ], "path": "entries/gap/masscec-publishes-zip-only.json", "state": "published-but-coarser", "severity": "limits-resolution", "grain_wanted": "point", "grain_available": "zip", "line": "Locations for individual solar installations. MassCEC's Production Tracking System records each installation and publishes only its ZIP code. NARROWED 2026-09-24: the City of Cambridge publishes its own register of 1,260 systems as points with addresses and capacity (dataset:cambridge-solar-installations), so the gap now stands for the other 67 municipalities.", "closes_if": "MassCEC publishes installation locations at parcel or street level, or publishes the circuit each installation interconnected to. Either alone would close it. Privacy is the stated reason for ZIP aggregation and is a real consideration for residential systems; circuit identifiers would sidestep it entirely.", "who_could_close_it": "Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, or Eversource by publishing per-installation circuit assignments", "tried": 2 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "municipal-aggregation-unpublished", "title": "The supply most households are on is a city programme that publishes no data", "eras": [ "distributed-energy", "heat-pump" ], "path": "entries/gap/municipal-aggregation-unpublished.json", "state": "not-published", "severity": "limits-resolution", "grain_wanted": "municipality", "grain_available": "none", "line": "Enrolment and price, as data, for the municipal aggregation programmes that supply most households in the frame: how many accounts each programme carries, on which option, at what cents per kilowatt-hour, against which Basic Service price, by year. Boston Community Choice Electricity says on its own page that “over 200,000 Boston households and businesses are currently enrolled”; Cambridge Community Electricity says it has “provided participants with more than $95 million in savings.” Both are sentences on web pages. Neither city publishes a table, and neither open-data portal carries the programme at all.", "closes_if": "Either city publishes enrolment by option and the contract price by term as a dataset, or the DPU requires aggregators to report enrolment in the annual filings it already receives.", "who_could_close_it": "The City of Boston Environment Department and the Cambridge Community Development Department, which run the programmes; or the Department of Public Utilities by reporting requirement", "tried": 4 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "nepool-annual-reports-untabulated", "title": "Twenty years of pool peaks exist as PDFs and have never been put in a table", "eras": [ "cooling" ], "path": "entries/gap/nepool-annual-reports-untabulated.json", "state": "needs-a-person", "severity": "blocks-a-claim", "grain_wanted": "region", "grain_available": "region", "line": "New England pool peak demand for 1971 through 1990, as a series. ISO New England hosts the NEPOOL annual reports that contain it — the 1990 report was confirmed to exist at 12.2 MB, HTTP 200 — but nobody has transcribed the numbers into a machine-readable series, and this project did not either.", "closes_if": "Someone downloads the NEPOOL annual reports from ISO-NE's own archive and transcribes the peak tables into a CSV with a stated basis per year. Twenty documents, one number each, and the atlas's weakest claim becomes its strongest.", "who_could_close_it": "Anyone, including the author of this atlas — it is unfinished work rather than a locked door, and it is recorded here so that it is not quietly forgotten", "tried": 3 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "no-boston-consumption-series", "title": "No consumption series exists for any household in Greater Boston, or for any building before 2015", "eras": [ "lighting", "traction", "appliance", "cooling", "gas-heat" ], "path": "entries/gap/no-boston-consumption-series.json", "state": "not-published", "severity": "limits-resolution", "grain_wanted": "municipality", "grain_available": "building", "line": "How much electricity the households of Greater Boston actually use, in any year. This entry has been NARROWED TWICE, on 2026-09-24, by finds that reach below the state without reaching the household. Boston's BERDO publishes annual energy use for large buildings from 2015, and Cambridge's BEUDO publishes electricity in kWh and gas in therms for about 845 large buildings a year for 2015–2024, now held as dataset:cambridge-beudo. And Mass Save's 2024 impact report publishes 2023 RESIDENTIAL electricity and gas use for every municipality — Cambridge 235,739 MWh, Boston 1,359,323 MWh — as an HTML table, one year only, with the multi-year all-sector series in Power BI behind a login. What is still missing is the household: nothing below the large building at any address, nothing residential below the municipality, and nothing at all before 2015.", "closes_if": "A utility or regulator publishes electricity sales by municipality, as some states require, or Eversource's own Massachusetts sales are released at territory or town grain for any historical year. Building-disclosure ordinances narrow this gap building by building but cannot close it: they reach large buildings in single cities, and the household is what this atlas keeps needing.", "who_could_close_it": "Eversource Energy, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, or the Department of Energy Resources by reporting requirement", "tried": 9 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "no-housing-weighted-crosswalk", "title": "There is no free housing-weighted crosswalk between ZIP codes and census tracts", "eras": [ "distributed-energy", "gas-heat", "heat-pump" ], "path": "entries/gap/no-housing-weighted-crosswalk.json", "state": "needs-a-person", "severity": "limits-resolution", "grain_wanted": "tract", "grain_available": "zip", "line": "A ZIP-to-tract crosswalk weighted by HOUSING UNITS rather than by land area. The U.S. Census publishes the exact geometric overlap between 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas and 2020 tracts, and that overlap is expressed in land and water area only. Nothing free and unregistered says what share of a ZIP's HOMES sit in a given tract.", "closes_if": "Someone registers for a HUD USPS crosswalk token and downloads the ZIP-tract file, or obtains a Census API key and pulls 2020 block housing counts to build the weights directly. Either is a form submission and an afternoon.", "who_could_close_it": "Anyone willing to register with HUD or the Census Bureau", "tried": 5 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "no-load-headroom-layer", "title": "Massachusetts publishes no load-headroom layer", "eras": [ "distributed-energy", "heat-pump", "compute" ], "path": "entries/gap/no-load-headroom-layer.json", "state": "not-published", "severity": "blocks-a-claim", "grain_wanted": "feeder", "grain_available": "feeder", "line": "A public layer showing how much NEW LOAD each distribution circuit can accept. Eversource publishes DG hosting capacity — how much GENERATION may interconnect — and nothing that answers the load question. The two are not the same measure and are not convertible into one another.", "closes_if": "Eversource publishes a load-capacity or load-headroom layer for eastern Massachusetts at circuit resolution, as it already does in Connecticut — or the DPU requires it. A per-circuit figure with a stated method would be enough; a statewide average would not.", "who_could_close_it": "Eversource Energy, or the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities by order", "tried": 6 }, { "type": "gap", "id": "pre-1971-peaks-nrc-blocked", "title": "Pre-1971 peak demand is in a federal docket that refuses automated access", "eras": [ "appliance", "cooling" ], "path": "entries/gap/pre-1971-peaks-nrc-blocked.json", "state": "access-blocked", "severity": "limits-resolution", "grain_wanted": "region", "grain_available": "none", "line": "New England and Boston Edison peak demand before 1971, with a winter/summer split. The most promising single document is the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station Final Environmental Statement of January 1972, which was written to justify a plant and therefore had to state the utility's historical load.", "closes_if": "Someone opens ADAMS Advanced Search in a browser, filters docket 05000293 to 1971–1973, and downloads the Final Environmental Statement. Roughly two minutes of human work.", "who_could_close_it": "Anyone with a browser", "tried": 4 }, { "type": "site", "id": "bery-central-power-station", "title": "Central Power Station, Harrison Avenue", "eras": [ "traction" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/site/bery-central-power-station.json", "kind": "traction-power-station", "state": "repurposed", "municipality": "Boston", "lon": -71.06602, "lat": 42.34112, "precision": "atlas-plate located", "line": "The building that electrified Boston's streetcars, and the one that complicates the story the reading wants to tell. The atlas plate prints the Boston Elevated Railway as LESSEE, not owner: the traction company did not build its own…" }, { "type": "site", "id": "boston-gas-light-north-end-works", "title": "Boston Gas Light Company works, North End", "eras": [ "lighting", "gas-heat" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/site/boston-gas-light-north-end-works.json", "kind": "gas-works", "state": "demolished", "municipality": "Boston", "lon": -71.05702, "lat": 42.36749, "precision": "approximate", "line": "Gas came first. The works that lit Boston's streets before electricity existed sat on the same waterfront that would later land coal for the generating stations, and the company that ran it is the direct ancestor of the gas distribution…" }, { "type": "site", "id": "cambridge-gas-light-works", "title": "Cambridge Gas Light Company works, East Cambridge", "eras": [ "lighting", "gas-heat" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/site/cambridge-gas-light-works.json", "kind": "gas-works", "state": "demolished", "municipality": "Cambridge", "lon": -71.0811, "lat": 42.36451, "precision": "atlas-plate located", "line": "Found incidentally while sweeping East Cambridge for a streetcar power station that is still unlocated. It matters to the atlas because it is the Cambridge half of a split that persists: Boston's gas system descends from Boston Gas and is…" }, { "type": "site", "id": "l-street-station", "title": "L Street Station, South Boston", "eras": [ "lighting", "appliance" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/site/l-street-station.json", "kind": "generating-station", "state": "repurposed", "municipality": "Boston", "lon": -71.03357, "lat": 42.33984, "precision": "atlas-plate located", "line": "The station that made South Boston the city's power district. It is the clearest surviving case in the atlas of a single building carrying a load era across its whole length: built for lighting, it was absorbed into the Edison system…" }, { "type": "site", "id": "lincoln-wharf-power-station", "title": "Lincoln Wharf Power Station", "eras": [ "traction" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/site/lincoln-wharf-power-station.json", "kind": "traction-power-station", "state": "repurposed", "municipality": "Boston", "lon": -71.05026, "lat": 42.36613, "precision": "atlas-plate located", "line": "A traction power station built on made land at the harbour edge, where coal could be landed directly. Its seventy-one-year working life spans the whole traction era and most of the appliance era after it; the plate carries the construction…" }, { "type": "site", "id": "markley-lowell", "title": "Markley Lowell", "eras": [ "compute" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/site/markley-lowell.json", "kind": "data-centre", "state": "operating", "municipality": "Lowell", "lon": -71.30851, "lat": 42.6444, "precision": "street address", "line": "Massachusetts' largest data centre, in a converted mill complex roughly a hundred feet from housing, with 27 diesel generators, 16 cooling towers and daily water use reported between 60,000 and 120,000 gallons. It has an active MassDEP…" }, { "type": "site", "id": "mystic-substation", "title": "Mystic substation", "eras": [ "cooling", "colocation", "compute" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/site/mystic-substation.json", "kind": "substation", "state": "operating", "municipality": "Everett", "lon": -71.06775, "lat": 42.39249, "precision": "approximate", "line": "The generating station called Mystic closed in 2024. The substation named after it did not. Of the eleven data centre buildings that can be matched to a distribution circuit at all, four sit on circuits supplied from Mystic — the two on…" }, { "type": "site", "id": "one-summer-street", "title": "1 Summer Street, Boston", "eras": [ "colocation", "compute" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/site/one-summer-street.json", "kind": "data-centre", "state": "operating", "municipality": "Boston", "lon": -71.06048, "lat": 42.35542, "precision": "street address", "line": "New England's only carrier hotel and its largest multi-tenant facility — the directory describes over 200 tenants and more than 50 network providers across eight points of fibre entry — and it publishes no power figure at all. It sits on a…" }, { "type": "site", "id": "quincy-market-cold-storage-power-house", "title": "Quincy Market Cold Storage and Warehouse Company power house, Sargent's Wharf", "eras": [ "lighting", "appliance" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/site/quincy-market-cold-storage-power-house.json", "kind": "generating-station", "state": "demolished", "municipality": "Boston", "lon": -71.05064, "lat": 42.36418, "precision": "atlas-plate located", "line": "A private industrial power house: a cold-storage company generating for itself on the waterfront, at a moment when buying from a central station was already possible. It is the atlas's clearest early example of a large customer deciding…" }, { "type": "site", "id": "sargents-wharf-coal-shed", "title": "Sargent's Wharf coal shed and ferry slips", "eras": [ "lighting", "traction" ], "tier": "verified", "path": "entries/site/sargents-wharf-coal-shed.json", "kind": "other", "state": "demolished", "municipality": "Boston", "lon": -71.04994, "lat": 42.36437, "precision": "atlas-plate located", "line": "The fuel end of the early electrical system. Every station in this era ran on coal that arrived by water, and the wharf infrastructure is as much a part of the grid as the generators — which is why the atlas records it as a site rather…" }, { "type": "site", "id": "seventy-inner-belt-road", "title": "70 Inner Belt Road, Somerville", "eras": [ "colocation", "compute" ], "tier": "secondary", "path": "entries/site/seventy-inner-belt-road.json", "kind": "data-centre", "state": "operating", "municipality": "Somerville", "lon": -71.07976, "lat": 42.37671, "precision": "building footprint", "line": "One of a cluster of data centres on a single Somerville industrial street, all drawing from circuits supplied by Mystic substation. The Inner Belt cluster is the atlas's best single image of the compute era's siting logic: cheap industrial…" } ] }