The utility National Grid wants to expand its efforts to heat its customers’ homes and businesses with gas generated from the digestion of human and food waste — and wants you to pay for it as part of a proposed rate hike.
National Grid says its proposal to use the gas produced from organics and sewage as fuel for customers — which it has already been testing at the city’s Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant — is part of its efforts to go green: it would avoid carbon emissions and replace fracked gas.
But some environmental advocates warn against National Grid’s proposed projects. They point to persistent breakdowns at the company’s existing project at Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant in Greenpoint, where much of the methane created has ended up being burned off into the air instead of sent to gas customers.
The state Public Service Commission must approve the proposal, or an amended version of it, for National Grid to move forward with more waste-to-energy plants and increase customer bills to pay for it.
If greenlit by regulators, National Grid could charge its customers in New York City about $13.2 million to subsidize capital costs (Long Island customers would be on the hook for about $9.9 million). The company expects the four systems could be in service by mid-2027.
Much like a stomach, the Newtown Creek plant digests sewage and a smoothie of food scraps the Department of Sanitation collects from orange street corner bins, public schools and curbside from household brown bins. That digestion process creates biogas, which helps power the plant. The excess gas is supposed to pipe into the homes and businesses of National Grid customers.
When the equipment that purifies the biogas to a higher quality and injects into the grid is down — whether for maintenance, malfunctions or testing — the excess gas is “flared” off, which releases carbon dioxide, instead of being used to heat homes. Between April 2023 and March 2024, the system was offline for nearly as much time as it was online, records show.
“Why are we bringing more industrial pollution into these communities?” said Meagan Burton, senior attorney with Earthjustice, who also represents WE ACT for Environmental Justice in the National Grid rate case proceedings.
She said that between the financial costs to customers and greenhouse gas emissions impacts of new facilities, the proposed projects would constitute “double harm to ratepayers” — and the company hasn’t demonstrated it can properly run the project it’s already got.
In an email to THE CITY, National Grid spokesperson Karen Young said the conversion of organic waste into usable gas can play a “significant role” in achieving state climate goals.
“The Newtown Creek facility is an innovative new project that has already had a meaningful impact on reducing emissions from our network,” she wrote. “As with many pilot projects, we encountered some challenges when we first commenced operations.”
Meanwhile, mayoral budget cuts are shutting down dozens of community composting and collection sites that transform food scraps into nutrient-rich soil. As the city ratchets up its program to collect household organics waste curbside, wastewater treatment plants are poised to play a bigger role in processing that material.
According to the city Department of Environmental Protection, Newtown Creek flared 80% less often during the first four months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2022, before National Grid’s project began operating.
“While we are pleased at the massive reduction in flaring year over year, we are working hard to further drive that number down,” DEP spokesperson Ted Timbers wrote in an email.
Will it Work?
Under the proposal, National Grid wants to set up its gas-to-grid system in two existing wastewater treatment plants: a city-owned plant in South Ozone Park, Queens, and one in Nassau County. The company also proposes to set up its interconnection system in two plants that have yet to be built, one in Staten Island and another in Suffolk County.
