NYC’s Steam System Heats 1,500 Customers, Including the Knicks

A network of underground pipes has pumped steam into a spattering of Manhattan buildings for more than 140 years, quietly powering their heating and cooling systems with little fanfare, save for the occasional orange steam stack dotting the island’s streets.

Now, as the biggest US city seeks to curb its carbon emissions, that 106-mile subterranean network delivering 370-degree vapor to a small subsect of New York’s skyline may have a bigger role to play.

The system, operated by New York-area energy provider and utility Consolidated Edison Inc., delivers about 15 billion pounds of steam every year from the southern tip of Manhattan all the way up to the 90s ...