Convergent Energy and Power will finance, own and operate the energy storage system for the West Boylston Municipal Light Plant.
Convergent Energy and Power, a New York-based energy storage specialist, has broken ground on a 3MW/9MWh utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) for Massachusetts’s municipally owned utility company West Boylston Municipal Light Plant (WBMLP).
Convergent will finance, own and operate the system, which the company says is expected to stabilize costs for WBMLP customers and help protect them from rising energy costs.
The lithium-ion battery is manufactured in the U.S. by Elm Microgrid and it comes equipped with the Elm FieldSight Microgrid Controller, which reports is designed to help the utility handle automated grid balancing, frequency response and time of use (TOU) shifting.
The Elm system has an integrated fire safety system that will automatically stop the BESS operation, Kate Siskel, senior vice president of marketing and communications at Convergent told pv magazine USA. It does this by shutting the system off by disabling the storage inverter and opening the rack-level battery contactors, Siskel said, adding that the system is designed to trigger an automated alarm, when needed.
The system uses Convergent’s proprietary energy storage intelligence, PEAK IQ, which integrates artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to ensure energy is stored and dispatched at strategic times.
Like many utilities, WBMLP seeks to reduce transmission and capacity costs for its customers, and Convergent reports it will manage costs by storing energy when it is cheapest and cleanest and discharging energy to displace the most expensive and carbon-intensive periods.
“U.S electricity demand is expected to increase by 50% by 2050—and energy storage has never been more critical to our electric grid—and our communities,” Johannes Rittershausen, chief executive officer, Convergent Energy and Power said in a release.
WBMLP reportedly sources 56% of its energy supply from clean and renewable sources, putting it ahead of Massachusetts’ greenhouse gas emissions goals. Its solar is sourced from a 1.5 MW installation on a former landfill and a 1 MW rooftop solar community solar project, both of which are in West Boylston. It also receives solar from a privately owned system, which totals 3 MW of solar generation or 6.5% of the utility’s energy supply, Jonathan Fitch, WBMLP general manager told pv magazine USA. He added that the main source of energy is nuclear and hydro is second.
“The ability of energy storage to minimize our utility coincidental load (demand) during the twelve-monthly transmission peaks and the annual ISO-NE capacity peak create the greatest savings and benefits for WBMLP,” Fitch said.
The BESS project will be co-located with WBMLP’s existing solar and flywheel assets. The system is projected to come online in the third quarter of 2025.
Convergent was launched as a startup in 2011 to develop, own and operate large-scale storage for industrial customers and utilities. Initially the company self-funded its projects, raising $70 million to do so. It recently closed approximately $150 million in financing with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. In April Convergent reported it has over $1 billion invested in or committed to assets in operation or under development across North America.
The company reports it now has over 800 MW/1 GWh of energy storage and solar-plus-storage systems operating or under development, which is equivalent to the power consumed by approximately 750,000 homes.
