With Forward Capacity Auction Success, Batteries are Winning in New England
Author: Todd Olinsky-Paul, Clean Energy Group | Projects: Resilient Power Project, Energy Storage Trends
Clean energy advocates are celebrating a major energy storage milestone in New England: Plus Power, a San Francisco-based developer of grid-scale batteries, is building the two largest battery projects to date in the region — a 150-MW/300-MWh lithium-ion battery system at Carver, Mass., south of Boston, called Cranberry Point Energy Storage, and a 175-MW/350-MWh lithium-ion battery system in Gorham, Maine.
The size of these systems is impressive, but the real news in this announcement is the economic basis for the plants: Plus Power won two bids in the ISO New England forward capacity auction, meaning the developer is now on the hook to deliver on a seven-year capacity contract beginning in June 2024. The two huge battery projects are being built to fulfill those contracts.