A FORMER EXXON OIL storage facility on an industrial plot of land just four miles from downtown Boston could be Massachusetts’s ticket to a green energy future — and lower utility bills.
Bay State officials announced Friday they are entering contract negotiations with four companies to procure nearly 1,300 megawatts of battery storage. More than half of the storage would come from the largest bidder, the Trimount project in Everett.
There, project developers have already begun remediation work and removed 21 of 22 old oil storage tankers that have been idling for years on the site, from which the Encore casino and Boston’s skyline are in view. It’s part of a larger effort to reshape the 100-acre property in Everett, including apartment complexes and an entertainment district.
“This whole area has been an energy complex for 100 years,” said Hans Detweiler, senior director of development for Jupiter Power, the project developer. “It’s just a really nice harmony. This is super important for the community. And it comes at an inflection point that the region is about to face.”
The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources together with the state’s largest utilities — Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil — launched a push earlier this year in response to last year’s climate law to build out battery storage, which are facilities with the capacity to store all forms of energy when electricity demand is low and release it during times of high demand.
That’s particularly helpful for renewable energy sources, which are relatively cheap but aren’t always deployed most strategically. Battery storage also can avoid the need for so-called peaker plants, which are often expensive and polluting oil and gas generators that start humming during the hottest and coldest days of the year to provide additional power.
“Energy storage allows us to fill in some of those peak-demand hours without having to build new infrastructure, so we can have economic growth without needing to have infrastructure growth,” said Amy Boyd Rabin, vice president of policy and regulatory affairs at the Environmental League of Massachusetts. “One of the constant complaints that you hear about renewable energy is, ‘What happens when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine?’ Energy storage is the answer to that, because it allows us more generally to line up the supply and demand with each other so that they fit really well.”
The winning bids selected Friday through the state’s procurement process are just the start of its swing to lock in 5,000 MW of storage by 2030. The four projects selected, out of 13 total bids, will create 1,268 MW of storage capacity, though that’s shy of the 1,500 MW the state and utilities had sought to solicit in this round of bids. In addition to Everett, the three other projects are in Somerset, Chelsea, and Tyngsborough.
“Storage is one of the most effective ways to meet demand, improve grid reliability, and lower costs,” DOER Commissioner Elizabeth Mahony said in a statement. “The projects selected today through a robust procurement process will diversify Massachusetts’ energy supply, lower costs for residents and businesses, and avoid future costly infrastructure upgrades.”
The Trimount project, which would be one of the largest in New England, promises to transform one of the state’s most polluted sites into a catalyst for a greener electric grid that can rely less on fossil fuel-based forms of power. The location, conveniently adjacent to a major Eversource substation along the Mystic River, will allow the batteries to quickly shoot electricity into the congested Boston area. And the batteries, Detweiler explained, will be kept in temperature-controlled, enclosed containers to avoid the weakening that can occur in cold weather.
Jupiter Power is operating and developing a host of energy storage projects around the country. Trimount will be paying at least $50 million in taxes to Everett over 20 years, Detweiler said, though that wasn’t enough to satisfy former Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria, who fought the project through its permitting process and argued it wasn’t in line with his vision for the city’s economic revitalization. The city’s new mayor, Robert Van Campen, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Battery storage projects across the state — and around the U.S. — have faced opposition from local communities concerned about the batteries catching on fire.
Trimount said in its bid that the project is able to avoid or delay $2.2 billion in transmission upgrades otherwise needed to meet rising energy demand and sits at a critical landing point for future offshore wind generation to be dispersed across the region. It’s planned to start operating in 2029.
Detweiler said the battery facility purchases energy on the wholesale market and makes money both when it’s sold back on to the grid and, critically, through Massachusetts’s clean peak credits. That program is intended to incentivize projects like these that can dispatch energy when it’s most needed — but, he said, there was no certainty what those clean peak prices would be.
This procurement paves the way for long-term contracts that make it easier to finance these large battery storage projects. These contracts will need approval from the Department of Public Utilities.
“Projects like this present such a contrast,” Detweiler said on a tour of the Everett facility earlier in December before the project was chosen, pointing out the city skyline in the distance from the contaminated oil storage field. “You can feel the evolution.”