NSTAR was a utility company that provided retail electricity and natural gas to 1.4 million customers in eastern and central Massachusetts, including the Boston urban area. NSTAR became a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities in April 2012. In February 2015, Northeast Utilities and all of its operating companies (Western Massachusetts Electric, Public Service New Hampshire, Connecticut Light and Power, Yankee Gas, and NSTAR Gas and Electric) became one large company known as Eversource Energy. NSTAR was formed in 1999 by the merger of BEC Energy and Commonwealth Energy System and had 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 sold its interest in the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant to FPL Group in 2002. On November 16, 2006, the company announced a 7.4% increase in its dividend to an annual rate of USD1.30 per common share from the previous USD1.21. NSTAR has ownership of unregulated district energy and telecommunications businesses, including Medical Area Total Energy Plant, LLC. 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. Environmental record In 2002, NSTAR Electric and Gas Corporation was cited by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 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. In July 2007, NSTAR Electric introduced a new program called NSTAR Green. In May 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. Power purchased through NSTAR Green would reduce reliance on fossil fuels that are traditionally used to meet the region’s electricity demand. PCB spill controversy NSTAR has had its share of environmental mishaps, including nearly a dozen spills at its former Watertown, Massachusetts facility. The spills, most of which occurred during the 1980s,