The system will be used for WMLP and will benefit their customers in the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts. The project will provide electricity cost savings during annual and monthly peak demand periods along with emergency backup power to essential Town services in the event of a power outage. In commissioning the site, LS-ES enabled the peak shaving, backup power, and ancillary services required by Citizens and WMLP.
Over a 20-year period, the BESS project is expected to yield more than $8 million in savings for WMLP ratepayers by reducing reliance on expensive peak power. Located adjacent to a WMLP substation, the project has six 20-foot battery containers and six inverter containers. It has the capacity to charge and store more than 20 megawatt-hours of energy during low-cost periods of low energy demand and discharge that energy during higher-cost periods of peak energy demand.
The system will dispatch stored energy during peak demand periods to lessen WMLP's power needs – a critical benefit that will reduce the Town's power costs. This project directly aligns with the Town of Wellesley's climate action goals to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The BESS can also serve as a source of backup power for Wellesley's critical infrastructure should the main grid fail. The LS-ES inverters convert the DC voltage from the batteries into AC voltage that can be used by Wellesley's town services, enabling the islanding needed to power the town services independent of the primary grid.
“Reducing energy costs with clean power is at the core of our projects, and we're excited to see Wellesley embrace a BESS that will achieve those goals thanks to LS-ES's work integrating the battery storage system,” says Steve Bern, Director of Business Development at Citizens Energy Corporation. “We hope that our Wellesley BESS project will serve as an example for other communities looking for ways to reduce energy bills with reliable backup power, and we look forward to working with LS Energy Solutions on future energy storage projects.”
