CommonWealth Beacon reports that the Wellesley Municipal Light Department, one of several town-owned electricity providers in the state, has teamed up with the former Joe-4-Oil on six 20-foot containers filled with large lithium-ion batteries that will charge at night, when wholesale electricity rates are lower, then discharge into the town power grid during peak daytime hours.
The plant, although tiny compared to proposed battery plants in Everett, Chelsea and Brighton, could save $8 million a year, with that split between the town and Citizens Energy, which built the facility.
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This is the future
By BostonDog
Thu, 11/07/2024 - 8:54pm
Solar coupled with batteries is just great all around. While there are negatives, they are significantly fewer than basically any other form of energy generation. These stations can be installed quickly without ongoing drilling, noise, or local pollution. Such an easy win.
It's really too bad these projects are going to be put on hold for the next few years. At least those wealthy enough to buy Tesla batteries can have the benefits themselves.
If musk is really going to be a Trump cabinet member
By hydeparkish
Thu, 11/07/2024 - 9:39pm
It could mean Tesla batteries in every US Government building.
That's possible
By BostonDog
Fri, 11/08/2024 - 1:09am
The nice thing about being extraordinary rich is that you can force people to give you more money.
Joe's an expert at that
By anon
Fri, 11/08/2024 - 9:27am
Citizen's Energy provided a great living for Joe and a few of his pals. That's the typical non-profit in these parts.
Nope
By Sator
Fri, 11/08/2024 - 10:23am
I mean, unless they're trying to put a remotely detonated bomb in each federal building - and lets be honest it could well be their agenda.
What exactly do you think went wrong with Hezbollah's pagers, and how is this a fundamentally different set-up?
Lets NOT store large quantities of potential energy in the basements of our federal buildings!
Please
By BostonDog
Fri, 11/08/2024 - 6:18pm
Many older federal buildings are heated by natural gas which is far more explosive and dangerous than batteries.
Switching to batteries would be safer than keeping the old gas lines connected.
I think it more likely
By jmeltzer
Fri, 11/08/2024 - 10:27am
that Tesla will switch to gasoline engines than that Tesla batteries will be in every government building.
See it go
By Frelmont
Thu, 11/07/2024 - 10:54pm
See it go
I’m no economic-ist, but in a
By Frelmont
Thu, 11/07/2024 - 11:00pm
I’m no economic-ist, but in a free market wouldn’t this end off-peak rates?
Joe C it go.
eh. wellesley already has
By anon
Fri, 11/08/2024 - 6:45am
eh. wellesley already has pretty low rates for electricity due to the MLP department. This will just allow them to take more advantage of the off peak rates given by their supplier.
beyond that, a town of ~30k people is not going to topple the pricing model for electric providers and distributors. if anything this is just another example of the rich using their resources to further distance themselves from the rest - most towns can't afford to build a giant battery bank or set up a MLP.
ps -- every town should have a MLP department.
You'd need a lot more batteries
By BostonDog
Fri, 11/08/2024 - 7:22am
Projects like this and the ones proposed for Boston are far too small to impact pricing overall. You'd need a massive deployment of battery stations to even out peak times.
Plus solar keeps growing and the technology improving which keeps pushing down the midday wholesale prices.
BTW, in Massachusetts there isn't demand or time based pricing for residential users.
If everybody did this, then yes, but...
By HenryAlan 2.0
Fri, 11/08/2024 - 9:45am
As others have pointed out, the scale is not there to move the market in the way you suggest. This is pretty similar to water authorities pumping water in to towers during the night when rates are cheaper, then letting gravity supply water pressure during the day. Water towers are essentially a type of battery, and they've been around for centuries.
not really
By anon
Fri, 11/08/2024 - 10:01am
I've been involved in energy conservation projects with the utility companies for years. They help fund projects that shift power consumption to off hours, even though the rates are lower, in order to offset/delay/prevent having to upgrade the infrastructure during peak hours. Think of it as paying people to work outside the regular 9-5 so that you don't have to expand the highways as drivership increases. Even with this increased off peak usage, there will still be enough on peak usage (especially in the summer months) to make this economically viable.
Number correction
By dvg
Fri, 11/08/2024 - 8:34am
Number correction
I was surprised at the figure of $8 million/year forecasted saving for a small system like this: 20 megawatt-hours (or 20,000 kWh) of energy storage. That’s what the Commonwealth Beacon says. A more reliable source linked below says that the estimated saving is over a period of 20 year, or $400k/year.
For reference, an average US home uses around 20 kWh/24 hour. There are big variations and that number can easily be 10 time as high for an all-electric McMansion on a cold winter day.
Other interesting figure; the system costs $10 to $12 million, so that’s around $500 per kWh of storage.
https://wellesleyma.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?aid=2303
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