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Date: 10/18/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Electricity may flow again at the former power plant on Route 5 near the Memorial Bridge. This time, instead of being generated by burning fossil fuels, an energy company is proposing storing it with batteries.
Cogentrix Energy, based in North Carolina, is considering a $70 million project to install 45 megawatts of battery storage capacity at the shuttered facility. Reusing the plant would mean significant tax revenues for the town, noted Mayor William Reichelt.
“The new development on the site is great news. The station is an important part of our tax base, and we look forward to bringing it back up to an actively developed site,” Reichelt said.
According to town officials, the West Springfield Planning Department has yet to receive any correspondence, plans or applications from Cogentrix.
Chris Sherman, vice president of regulatory affairs for Cogentrix, confirmed that his company is interested in the site.
“It was a conventional power plant over 60 years old. It retired last year. We are proposing to install clean energy resources on the site. Our first stage proposal is a 45-megawatt battery storage project,” he said.
Battery storage is considered a vital resource as the nation shifts to renewable energy sources. Wind turbines and solar arrays only generate power when natural forces permit. Battery facilities can store that power to ensure it is available when consumers need it.
“This facilitates the grid’s transition to cleaner energy sources like wind and solar, which aren’t always available on demand,” Sherman said.
Battery facilities reduce the need for energy suppliers to maintain “peaker” fossil fuel plants, which operate only during times of high demand. That was the role played by the West Springfield plant before it closed.
Cogentrix is currently evaluating how a facility in West Springfield would fit into the regional electric grid. Reusing the existing West Springfield Generating Station, which began operation in 1949, has some benefits.
“The benefits of using an existing site include reusing some infrastructure, like a transformer. … We can repurpose some of the infrastructure and maintain our connections with the local community.”
The new facility requires cooperation with local and regional power entities.
“Our focus has been working with ISO New England to study the impacts of the facility on the bulk power system,” Sherman said, adding that those talks are “a little beyond the beginning phase.”
He said, “Once ISO New England is done studying the project, we will sign an interconnection agreement with them and Eversource.”
Sherman said if the project moves forward and receives approvals from the town, he expected the conversion to be completed by the first quarter of 2025.
The plant, which has transitioned from coal to oil to natural gas over the decades, would now be at the forefront of clean energy.
“We will have to go through a municipal permitting process with West Springfield,” Sherman said. But he also noted that the project’s size keeps it below the threshold that would require state permitting.
Sherman acknowledged that Cogentrix has other projects in the works, but “this is the most mature project that we have, and this is the first one that I have ever done,” he said.
He recalled developing natural gas-fired plants in the 1990s to the latest cutting-edge energy venture.
“The evolution of technology has come a long way,” he remarked.
Battery storage facilities align with Massachusetts’ broader efforts to enhance sustainability. The state’s Clean Peak Standard, initiated in 2020, encourages the use of renewable energy during peak demand periods.
The push is part of the “Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy,” approved by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2021, aiming for significant greenhouse gas reductions by 2050.
The project’s focus on replacing fossil-fuel infrastructure with advanced battery storage resonates with national shifts toward sustainable energy. It also complements Massachusetts’ targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The state set ambitious goals to cut emissions to 50% of 1990 levels by 2030 and achieve a 75% reduction by 2040, with a net-zero emissions target set for 2050.