It is run by the Congeneration ManagementCompany (CMC), which is a wholly owned subsidiaryof the University.

Power Plant Output

Each hour, the plant produces 62 megawatts ofelectricity, 900,000 pounds of steam and 24,900tons of chilled water.

That adds up to over 225 million kilowatt-hoursof electricity, over one billion pounds of steam,and 45 million ton-hours of refrigeration eachyear.

The generators, cooling towers, chillers andboilers are neatly aligned in arrays in thethree-story building, all run from a large controlroom which has hundreds of panels and monitoringstations.

Not damaging the environment was a principalconcern for MATEP's designers and its currentmanagement. In accordance with regulations, theplant maintains remote monitoring stations--one ison Route 9 in Brookline and another is at theDeaconess Hospital. If levels of nitrous oxide inthe air rise and the wind is blowing from theplant, the diesel generators are powered down.

The plant has double windows, so thatpedestrians on the street cannot hear the dieselgenerators, which are so loud that ear protectionis required inside.

As at any power plant, security is an issue,and all visitors are escorted by security guardsand must be signed in and out by authorizedpersonnel.

Oil deliveries to the plant occur at night andtake place at an interior loading bay, soneighbors are not disturbed.

The building was designed to look likeneighboring hospitals and office towers, soadministrative offices with windows are at thefront, and there is a brick exterior at groundlevel. Some people actually wander inside theplant thinking it is Brigham & Women's Hospital,which is across the Street, MATEP officials says.

Construction Controversy

Neighbors actively tried to block the plant'sconstruction and operation a decade ago, but therehave been few complaints in recent years, saysDonald S. Yeaple, CMC's vice president and generalmanager.

The Massachusetts Department of EnvironmentalProtection announced its intention to approve theentire MATEP Facility in 1977, but disapproved thediesel electric generation portion in 1978 becauseof concerns about the health effects of nitogendioxide emissions.

Harvard appealed the 1978 decision, requestinga formal adjudicatory review of the diesel impact,which included 186 hours of oral testimony andhundreds of pages of written testimony from expertwitnesses to produce some 7,300 pages oftranscript and documents.

The Department disapproved the dieselgeneration again in 1979 but established criteriaunder which they could be approved, which Harvardeventually resolved.