{"id":3248,"date":"2026-02-18T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/?p=3248"},"modified":"2026-04-10T10:47:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T10:47:37","slug":"new-englands-biggest-grid-battery-is-up-and-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/?p=3248","title":{"rendered":"New England\u2019s biggest grid battery is up and running\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A massive new battery has entered service in southern Maine, providing a\u00a0much-needed boost to the Northeast\u2019s efforts to expand clean and affordable energy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Developer Plus Power wrapped up its Cross Town Energy Storage project in late November, but publicly inaugurated it last week in a\u00a0ceremony featuring Gov. Janet Mills, a\u00a0Democrat, who has championed clean energy for the state and is currently running for Senate. Now, the small town of Gorham, nine miles inland from Portland, hosts a\u00a0battery plant capable of injecting 175<\/span>\u00a0megawatts for up to two hours, a\u00a0bigger capacity than any other battery in New England.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201c<\/span>During Winter Storm Fern, we were 100<\/span>% available and ready to contribute capacity with no emissions,\u201d said Polly Shaw, chief external relations officer at Plus Power. \u200b\u201c<\/span>With a\u00a0response capability of 250<\/span>\u00a0milliseconds, there\u2019s no faster asset that New England can rely on to help when they need capacity or grid services.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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New England states have issued a\u00a0raft of energy storage targets in recent years, meant to complement their bevy of commitments to grid decarbonization. By 2030<\/span>, Massachusetts aims to have 5<\/span>\u00a0gigawatts<\/a>, Connecticut 1<\/span>\u00a0gigawatt<\/a>, and Maine 400<\/span>\u00a0megawatts<\/a>. So far, however, it\u2019s been slow going, even as storage has taken off in states like California and Texas. New England has managed to build just two battery installations with more than 100<\/span>\u00a0megawatts: Plus Power\u2019s Cross Town and its 150<\/span>-megawatt Cranberry Point Energy Storage project, which came online in Massachusetts in\u00a0June.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Plus Power has distinguished itself by entering into markets before they become saturated. For these two projects, the company won seven-year contracts<\/a> in a\u00a02021<\/span> forward capacity auction for the Independent System Operator New England, which runs wholesale power markets for the region\u2019s six states. ISO-NE<\/span> subsequently switched its capacity auctions to one-year awards \u2014 a\u00a0move that complicates storage development in the region, as short-term contracts make it harder to attract project financing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As it stands, Plus Power can claim the federal investment tax credit for 30<\/span>% of the cost of the storage plant. Then it can earn revenue from the capacity contract and by bidding ancillary services in the wholesale market. Batteries can also arbitrage energy by buying when it\u2019s cheap (typically when there\u2019s an influx of renewable production) and selling when it\u2019s expensive (typically when there\u2019s increased reliance on gas-burning peaker plants).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A massive new battery has entered service in southern Maine, providing a\u00a0much-needed boost to the Northeast\u2019s efforts to expand clean and affordable energy. Developer Plus Power wrapped up its Cross Town Energy Storage project in late November, but publicly inaugurated it last week in a\u00a0ceremony featuring Gov. Janet Mills, a\u00a0Democrat, who has championed clean energy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-green-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3250,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248\/revisions\/3250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}