HARVARD'S PROPOSED $56 million total energy power plant, which would serve the Medical School and medical-related institutions in the Mission Hill area of Boston, sounds like a good idea if it will save the University money, as Harvard officials claim.

However, before a power plant of such massive scale and potentially disruptive nature can even be built, there are other considerations more pressing than anticipated dollars savings that must be examined.

The first consideration is the power plant's neighbors, the residents of Mission Hill, who may have to live with the possible hazards resulting from the planned power plant.

Harvard and the medical institutions have abused and divided Mission Hill by claiming that a much-needed housing project in the area cannot be built without first constructing the power plant, because the plant will supply free steam, cooling and chilled water to the housing.

But as one Mission Hill resident opposed to the plant put it, Harvard is blackmailing the residents by holding the housing over their heads to make sure it gets the power plant.

Much of the neighborhood surrounding the plant's site is blighted and in bad need of renewal. The housing project with its 500 units of low and moderate income housing provides at least some of that renewal and a barrier to future expansion.

But the plant, with a capacity to provide much more power than the eleven institutions tied into the plant need, simply brings more blight and expansion to an area that can no longer tolerate either.

Mission Hill can and must be allowed to have its housing without having to pay the penalty of having Harvard's power plant placed in their residential neighborhood. The power plant should be stopped and construction begun on the housing immediately.