Massachusetts town to build New England’s first utility-scale battery storage project
Months after Massachusetts agency outlined steps to achieve 600 MW of energy storage, a small town in the state wants to build New England’s biggest energy storage project—which would also be the region’s first utility scale project.
Sterling Municipal wants to build on its installed solar capacity by using battery storage to lower peak demand charges as well as keep the lights on.
The lithium ion battery system will store solar energy to provide energy resiliency to critical town departments including the police, dispatch, and fire service. It will also provide transmission capacity charge savings from reducing peak demand, according to a description of the project.
“This project is the largest of its kind in New England,” said Bud Collins, CEO of NEC Energy Solution. Energy storage initiatives through the Department of Energy Resources “could make Massachusetts one of the
largest energy storage markets in the world.”
The turn-key system will be contained in a single 53-foot container housing 3.9 MWh of lithium ion batteries, a 2 MW power conversion system, and NEC’s control software. The Clean Energy States Alliance is also providing technical assistance, as is the Clean Energy Group’s Resilient Power Project through a grant from the Barr Foundation.
