Pumped hydro among bids in 1.5 GW Massachusetts energy storage tender

A tender held to procure 1.5 GW of four- to 10-hour battery energy storage system (BESS) project capacity for the US state of Massachusetts has attracted bids for 13 sites, including from an existing pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) site.

It is not clear whether the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources’ (DOER) hoped-for capacity target has been met as details of eight of the 12 BESS projects submitted have had their scale redacted. The exercise has attracted bids for a confirmed 843 MW/5.94 GWh of BESS and PHES storage capacity and, with a minimum project capacity of 40 MW/160 MWh stipulated in the tender rules, the other BESS would comprise at least 320 MW/1.28 GWh of additional capacity.

The PHES bid relates to 88 MW/395 MWh of the total 666 MW/3 GWh capacity at the Bear Swamp pumped hydro site operated by Canadian-American investor Brookfield Asset Management. With Bear Swamp having been constructed in 1974, the slice of its capacity eligible for the Massachusetts tender relates to upgrades completed in 2021 and 2023 and its owner is bidding for a 28-year contract.

The rest of the bids are for BESS proposed by seven developers.

The Agawam project proposed by Boston-based Longroad Energy is a 250 MW/1 GWh BESS which would connect to utility Eversource Energy’s 115 kV South Agawam switchyard.

The Hecate Energy Ward Hill Energy Center would be a 310 MW/1.24 GWh BESS likely featuring CATL or Samsung batteries and which would connect to the 345 kV Ward Hill substation.

East Point Energy, based in Charlottesville, Virginia, has bid to develop its 125 MW (ac)/500 MWh Hillman Energy Center, lithium iron phosphate (LFP) BESS in Tewksbury, under a 20-year contract.

Austin, Texas-based Jupiter Power has bid for its 700 MW/2.8 GWh Trimount ESS BESS in Everett.

Of the battery projects with redacted details, New York’s Rhynland Energy has proposed a four-hour BESS in Tyngsborough which would feature Tesla Megapack 2XL batteries; fellow NY-based developer CleanCapital has bid for three BESS, one of which would be in Cheshire and another in Pittsfield; and Colorado-based Flatiron Energy is proposing four four-hour BESS at unspecified locations in the state.

The DOER tender is part of the state’s bid to procure 5 GW of energy storage capacity by 2030, of which 3.5 GW will have four- to 10-hour storage capacity.

The winning bids are due to be selected on Dec. 9 and will be rewarded with contracts from state utilities Eversource, which will procure power from 53.89%% of the project capacity; National Grid, which will take 45.1%; and Unitil, which will take 0.97%.

The value of each bid has been redacted in the documents published by DOER but the state body expects developers will earn revenue of around $220 per kilowatt of project capacity, which will be funded by Massachusetts’ Clean Peak Energy Standard program.

With the developers having paid $500 per megawatt of project capacity to lodge their bids, the procurement exercise has already raised at least $581,500.