Harvard is currently in discussions with NSTAR corporation, the electric and gas distribution company serving Cambridge, to purchase the Blackstone energy plant located on the south corner of the intersection of Memorial Drive and Western Ave.

Kathy A. Spiegelman, Harvard’s associate vice president for planning and real estate, discussed the possible acquisition at a meeting Wednesday night of the Riverside Neighborhood Study Committee.

The plant, which generates steam through burning oil, is of great importance to the University because it currently produces the bulk of the steam that is used on Harvard’s Cambridge and Allston campuses. Harvard would continue to use the plant to produce the campus’ steam after any acquisition.

The steam is primarily used for wintertime heating of Harvard’s buildings and is distributed through the campus by a series of underground walk-through tunnels and pipes.

Harvard has the opportunity to purchase the plant because NSTAR is required to sell the plant under the state’s 1997 electricity deregulation act. Under the act, the state’s electric distribution companies—the companies which deliver power to consumers—are no longer allowed to own generation facilities—the plants that actually produce the power.

While the Blackstone plant presently does not produce electrical power, Thomas E. Vautin, Harvard’s associate vice president for facilities and environmental services, said in an interview yesterday that the plant is covered by the electricity deregulation law because it has produced electricity in the past and still has the potential capacity to do so.

He noted that the machinery in the plant that produces electricity is currently in very poor shape and that the University would have no interest in using the plant to produce electricity.

While Harvard is still investigating the plant’s equipment, Vautin said that he believed that the steam production equipment in the plant was in adequate condition and would not require any major expenditure upon acquisition.