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Our quarterly newsletter captures project spotlights, conferences and events attended, and recent staff updates.
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 MIT Central Utilities Plant Receives Approval |
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MIT Central Utilities Plant
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As the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) looks to the future, the university realizes that it needs to upgrade it Central Utilities Plant (CUP) to provide a more reliable source of energy. The CUP provides the campus with electricity and steam through a combined heat and power process driven by an aging natural gas turbine. To better serve the campus, upgrades were proposed that included replacing the aging turbine with new equipment and adding a second, new 22-megawatt turbine as well as system updates and energy conservation measures. The overall goals of the project are to increase energy reliability and efficiency and to utilize the best technology to reduce emissions.
Epsilon played a key role in this project by providing
air quality
licensing and permitting support to MIT as the university worked to make these upgrades to their CUP. Specifically, Epsilon obtained separate state and federal air approvals and navigated a streamlined MEPA Environmental Impact Report review that highlighted the greenhouse gas improvements of the project.
In June, the MassDEP issued the final permits for the project affirming that the project complies with state and federal air quality regulations. For more information on this project, visit
MIT's website
.
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Epsilon Projects Win Preservation Massachusetts 2017 Tsongas Awards
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Every year Preservation Massachusetts recognizes individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to preserving the Commonwealth's historic resources. This year's theme was the Power of Preservation with 23 projects receiving awards for demonstrating the power of rehabilitation and restoration.
Epsilon was a member of the project team for eight of the award winning projects. Epsilon provided historic preservation consulting services including the securing of state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits for each of these diverse collection of projects.
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The Merchant in Salem, MA.
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The award-winning projects to which Epsilon contributed included MassDevelopment's Transformative Development Initiative, for which Epsilon is assisting in identifying potential candidate properties in Gateway cities for state and federal historic tax credits. The Abbot Mill in Westford is embarking on its second phase of the mill's conversion to add additional residential units. The Post Office Square project in Plymouth includes rehabilitating Plymouth's historic Post Office for mixed-use, which includes office space, residential units, and continued use by the U.S. Post Office. The Merchant project in Salem took an underutilized federal period residence and transformed it into an 11-room boutique inn. The Junction Shops project in Worcester took a vacant, sprawling mill comprised of several 19th century brick industrial buildings and converted it them into housing and amenity spaces. The United Teen Equality Center (UTEC) in Lowell restored and expanded the former St. Paul's Church into the Center's headquarters, as well as adding a new youth center with a gym and performance space.
The Loft Five50 project in Lawrence took six historic mill buildings and converted them into 137 units of LEED Certifiable mixed-income housing. Finally, Cable Mills Apartments in Williamstown transformed and adapted a mill complex into residential units.
Epsilon is honored to have been part of each of these award-winning projects. For full stories of these and the other award-winning projects, please visit the Preservation Massachusetts' website.
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Epsilon Tops the Boston Skyline
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Millennium Tower in Boston.
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Epsilon has played a significant role in the development of new high-rise buildings in downtown Boston, including One Dalton and the Millennium Tower. Once completed, One Dalton will be the tallest residential tower in New England standing at 740 feet and 61 stories tall. The development will consist of residential, retail, residences and a Four Seasons luxury hotel. Epsilon led the preparation of the Article 80 documentation for the development on behalf of the Carpenter Companies and The First Church of Christian Science of Boston.
Millennium Tower involved the redevelopment of the historic 1912 Filene's Department Store, a designated Boston landmark. The 690-foot development contains 422 luxury condos as well as office and retail space. Epsilon was responsible for providing strategic Article 80 and MEPA consulting services.
We are pleased and proud to help bring these prominent and exciting projects to the Boston skyline.
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Where We've Been (And Where We're Going)
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Highlighted below are some of the events we attended this past winter and spring.
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Joe Sabato speaking at EUEC.
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Both Principal Steve Slocomb and Senior Scientist Joe Sabato attended this year's annual Energy, Utility & Environment Conference (EUEC) 2017 in February in San Diego, California. Steve's presentation "The Environmental Impact of Decommissioning in ISO-NE," covered environmental impacts as power plants in the New England Region come offline. Joe presented on the "Goldilocks Effect - Finding the Power Plant Site That is Just Right," which covered the environmental permitting needs of a power plant project and how that influences finding the right site for a new power plant. For more information on either of these presentations, please contact us.
The Independent Power Producers of New York (IPPNY) Spring Conference took place on May 9-10. This two-day event held in Albany, New York, attracted energy industry executives, policy makers, and members of the financial and legal communities. Principals Mike Guski, Dave Klinch, and Dwight Dunk attended the event on behalf of Epsilon.
The 24th Annual New England Energy Conference and Exposition took place on May 9-10 in Groton, Connecticut. The event featured numerous informational panels on the energy sector. Epsilon was well represented by Principals Dale Raczynski, Senior Consultant Dorothy Buckoski, and Senior Scientist Joe Sabato.
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Rob O'Neal, Rich Lampeter, and Clint Cyr at AWEA WINDPOWER 2017.
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was
held in Anaheim, CA during the week of May 22. As always, this conference provided a great opportunity to catch up with colleagues, clients, and other leaders in the wind industry. Attending for Epsilon were Principal
Rob O'Neal
, Associate
Rich Lampeter
, and Project Engineer
Clint Cyr
.
Both Principal Les Smith and Associate Maria Hartnett spoke at the Nantucket Coastal Conference on June 6 on Nantucket. Les spoke about the Martha's Vineyard Hybrid Cable project, while Maria provided an update on the Geotube installation work associated with the Sconset Beach Nourishment project.
The NECA 2017 Environmental Conference took place on June 15 in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Epsilon was pleased to sponsor the event which featured both Senior Scientist Joseph Sabato, who provided the welcoming remarks and Principal AJ Jablonowski, who spoke on Panel II, entitled Permitting in Different States: A New Gas Turbine Power Plant Mock Project.
Our upcoming events include:
MAMA 44th Annual Conference
| September 25-26, 2017 |
More Info
Epsilon exhibiting at event
Microgrid 2017 Conference
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November 6, 2017 |
More Info
Epsilon exhibiting at event
Click
here
to learn more about these and other upcoming events.
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What's New At Epsilon
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As many of our readers have already seen, Epsilon celebrated its 20th anniversary this past March. We are thrilled to have accomplished such an important milestone and could not have done it without the help of clients, our colleagues in the industry and our loyal staff for their support and encouragement over the past two decades. We celebrated with an office party on March 30th with our clients and colleagues from the past 20 years. We also celebrated with a staff dinner and dancing party in Boston. We are looking forward to future!
We recently welcomed Abbegail Nack as a Staff Engineer to our Air Quality Group. Abbegail graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) this spring, earning a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering and Professional Writing. Abbegail interned for us last summer and we are thrilled that she has decided to join Epsilon full time. Read our news announcement for more details.
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Team 'Bogus'. 2017 NA Champions!
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At the end of May, Epsilon's Erik Rexford crewed on Will Welles' "Bogus," the winner of the 2017 J/24 North American Championship held in Houston, Texas. This is the third consecutive North American Championship win for the team on the Newport, RI based Bogus, having won the 2015 Championship in Portland, Maine and (without Erik) the 2016 Championship in Ontario, Canada. After ten races held over three days, Bogus bested 28 other teams in near ideal sailing conditions at the Houston Yacht Club. Additional details and full results on the North Sails website.
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