With Great Power How Eversource became the first US utility to provide geothermal power
Feb 3, 2026
Nikki Bruno, VP of thermal solutions at Eversource who leads geothermal and gas decarbonization work, walks through the utility-led geothermal network in Framingham. She explains how the neighborhood-scale system serves 140 customers. She covers recruiting and trust-building with the community, DOE funding for expansion, and what utilities need to scale networked geothermal.
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Utility-Owned Neighborhood Geothermal Network
- Eversource built a neighborhood geothermal loop serving about 140 customers across roughly 36 buildings in Framingham.
- The utility owns and operates the loop, three bore fields, and a central pump house that circulates a water-based fluid to heat and cool buildings.
Nonprofit And Utility Partnership Started It
- The project began from a 2017 pitch by the nonprofit HEAT and became Eversource's pilot proposed in a 2020 gas rate case.
- HEAT later led a Department of Energy grant application to expand the pilot with federal support.
Utility Ownership Changes Economics And Scale
- The prime difference is that a regulated utility owns the geothermal network, giving access to long-term financing and rights in public rights-of-way.
- That ownership lets Eversource spread costs over time and potentially deploy the technology at scale differently than private developers.