Plus Power on June 13 announced the close of construction and term financing for a utility-scale standalone battery storage system in New England. The Cranberry Point facility is located in Carver, Massachusetts.
The 150 megawatt/300 megawatt hour Cranberry Point Energy Storage facility was among the first few standalone batteries ever to clear the ISO New England Forward Capacity Auction in 2021.
With that award, Cranberry Point committed to provide capacity to the ISO-NE market through 2031.
In the same auction, Plus Power's 175 MW/350 MWh Cross Town Energy Storage facility in Gorham, Maine also won a capacity payment commitment from ISO-NE through 2031.
Cranberry Point and Cross Town are the largest battery energy storage projects in construction with planned operations in New England and will be online during Summer 2025, Plus Power said.
The Cross Town Energy Storage project commenced construction in April 2024 and is now the largest battery coming online in the region.
The Cranberry Point facility, under construction since December 2023, is the second largest and represents approximately a third of the Commonwealth's goal to deploy 1,000 MWh of battery energy storage by 2025.
“The announcement marks the first major financing of a utility-scale project that will benefit from Clean Peak Energy Certificates, a relatively new and innovative incentive program unique to Massachusetts,” Plus Power said.
Massachusetts launched the Clean Peak Standard in 2020 to incentivize the pairing of emissions-free generation with seasonal peak demand. In doing so, the Clean Peak program recognizes and remunerates batteries for their additional service to shift clean loads to replace polluting 'peaking' generation, Plus Power said.
