NSTAR

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NSTAR was also the name of the Ion Engine tested on NASA's space probe Deep Space 1.

NSTAR (NYSE: NST) is a private utility company that provides retail electricity and natural gas to customers in eastern and central Massachusetts, including the Boston urban area.

NSTAR was formed in 1999 by the merger of BEC Energy and Commonwealth Energy System. NSTAR currently has the following operating units: Boston Edison Company, Cambridge Electric Light Company, Commonwealth Electric Company, and NSTAR Gas Company (formerly Commonwealth Gas and Cambridge Gas Company). As a part of deregulation of the local electrical power industry, NSTAR has divested itself of all electric generation facilities, keeping only those elements of the business which remain regulated. NSTAR has ownership of unregulated district energy and telecommunications businesses including Medical Area Total Energy Plant, Inc. which produces electricity, steam and chilled water for sale to customers in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston.

Electric power distribution in the New England area is coordinated by ISO New England, a Regional Transmission Organization.

NSTAR sold its interest in the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant to FPL Group in 2002.

[edit] Environmental Record

In 2002 NStar Electric and Gas Corporation was cited by the Environmental Protection Agency for discharging oil into the Charles River. The EPA also stated that NStar had failed to prepare spill plans at four of its facilities, in Brighton, Cambridge, Needham and West Roxbury, where oil is pumped through their pipe lines.^[1] In July of 2007 NStar Electric introduced a new program called NStar Green. In May of 2008, NStar Green signed ten-year contracts for sixty megawatts of wind power from two wind farms in New York and Maine. They offered their customers a chance to buy 50-100 percent of their power from these wind farms. By doing this, NStar became a model for the entire country as a front runner in the advancement in alternative energy sources.^[2] Power purchased through NStar Green would reduce reliance on fossil fuels that are traditionally used to meet the region’s electricity demand. ^[3]