Yesterday, stakeholders from across Massachusetts and New England joined the Sterling Municipal Light Department in Sterling, Massachusetts (US) to celebrate the groundbreaking of the first utility-scale energy storage facility in Massachusetts. The 2-megawatt, 3.9 megawatt-hour battery storage system, to be installed at Sterling’s Chocksett Road Substation, will be able to “island” from the grid during a power outage and, with the support of existing solar generation, provide up to 12 days of backup power to the town’s police station and dispatch center, a critical facility providing first responder services.

In addition to the resilient power benefits, the town will also save on energy costs over the project’s lifespan due to the grid services the batteries will provide. Site construction will start in the fall of 2016, and the project is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2016. This 2-megawatt project effectively doubles the installed battery storage capacity in Massachusetts.

“Energy storage plays a crucial role as the Commonwealth continues to transition to a more renewable, sustainable energy future, and I commend Sterling for their embrace of this innovative resource,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton. "The storage technology being adopted by Sterling will not only reduce costs and emissions for ratepayers locally but will provide critical increased resiliency for the regional electric grid."

“Energy storage is the next step for our industry,” said Sean Hamilton, General Manager at the Sterling Municipal Light Department. “We’ve been doing one thing for a hundred years, it’s time to do something different.”

“This project demonstrates the many benefits of energy storage technology, including the provision of resilient power to the town’s police station, plus it demonstrates the economic case for energy storage," said Todd Olinsky-Paul, Project Director at the Clean Energy States Alliance. "It is laying the groundwork for future energy storage projects, and once that economic case is understood, we will see many other communities in New England follow in the footsteps of Sterling."

The project is being led by Sterling Municipal Light Department, with batteries supplied by NEC Energy Solutions, a locally based company with headquarters in Westborough, Massachusetts. Project funding included a $1.46M grant from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, under the leadership of Commissioner Judith Judson, with additional financial and technical assistance from the DOE-OE under the direction of Dr. Imre Gyuk, and Sandia National Laboratories under the leadership of Dan Borneo. Additional technical support was provided by CESA through its Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership (ESTAP), and by Clean Energy Group’s Resilient Power Project through a generous grant from Barr Foundation.

ESTAP will host a webinar on the Sterling energy storage project on Tuesday, 25 October 2016. Guest speakers will review the project implementation process, the battery storage technology, the project’s economic analysis, timeline, and more. There will also be ample time for questions and answers.