HOLDEN — The Holden Municipal Light Department has partnered with Delorean Power LLC, an energy storage project developer, owner and operator, on a new battery energy storage facility that will create cost savings and establish HMLD among the energy technology leaders in New England.
The project will be located at the recently reconfigured Chaffin substation in Holden and will be owned and operated by Delorean to serve HMLD and its customers.
“When the Chaffin work was done, and the old structures razed, we were able to use less space for the new substation,” said HMLD General Manager Barry Tupper. “So we won’t need any more land for the battery storage facility. It will all fit in the existing footprint.”
Tupper said the project was somewhat “in the back of the mind” when they did the Chaffin work, and they were able to plan the land use to allow for it. That planning also means the construction of the battery facility will not cost the town a substantial amount of money, he said.
While he did not have any hard figures on hand, he said that Delorean will provide the battery equipment, and the town will be responsible for some “minimal” infrastructure costs.
The 5 megawatt/22 megawatt-hour energy storage facility will provide HMLD customers with protection from fast-rising capacity and transmission costs, which batteries are ideally suited to mitigate, according to the press release announcing the project.
The project is expected to be operational in October 2024, and will use energy to charge during low-cost, off-peak hours, which traditionally are the least carbon intensive, and then discharge during peak demand periods, replacing higher costs and higher emitting generation resources. The resulting shift in energy demand from on-peak to off-peak hours will lead to significant cost and environmental benefits for the customers of the Holden Municipal Light Department, the release stated.
“We’re not really planning anything construction-wise until spring (2024). They’ll be some site testing and other preliminary work first,” said Tupper.
“We are excited to partner with HMLD on an innovative project that brings Holden to the forefront of one of the fastest growing and most fundamental sectors of tomorrow’s energy industry,” said Rory Jones, Delorean co-founder and managing partner. “Delorean was founded to optimize grid-scale energy storage technology, creating a dynamic revenue stack to extract the most value from our battery systems and pass along proceeds and benefits to our partners. HMLD has been a great partner, working hand-in-hand with our team to ensure the most impactful project and cost savings for Holden.”
“Holden Municipal Light Department’s mission is to continuously provide the citizens of Holden safe and reliable electricity at a reasonable and competitive rate,” said Tupper. “HMLD’s power portfolio is currently 60% non-carbon emitting, including wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear generating assets. HMLD is currently ahead of the state-mandated Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for municipal light plants for 2030. With this project, HMLD is leading the way in environmental stewardship in a fiscally responsible manner.
“We are excited to add a battery storage system to our newly rebuilt Chaffins Substation to help us continue with our mission. Delorean Power, MMWEC and HMLD staff have spent countless hours working on this agreement, and we at HMLD are looking forward to October 2024.”
The Holden project is the first in a series that Delorean has developed with facilitation from the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co., the Commonwealth’s designated joint action agency for municipal utilities, stated the release. Delorean won a highly competitive MMWEC solicitation in late 2022 for an exclusive partnership to build similar energy storage projects across Massachusetts, with many expected to finish construction by the end of 2024.
“HMLD’s energy storage project is forecast to deliver more than $10 million in transmission and capacity avoided costs over the life of the 20-year life expectancy of the system,” said Jason Viadero, MMWEC director of engineering & generation assets. “MMWEC is pleased to be working with Delorean to deliver these significant savings to HMLD’s customers using joint action.”
Tupper added that support from the town has been strong.
“The Board of Selectman, the Municipal Electric Power Advisory Board — they’ve all been in support of the project.”
For more information on Delorean, visit www.deloreanpower.com.
