New Eversource Battery Significantly Cuts Down Provincetown Outage Times

Eversource Battery Storage Facility at Provincetown Transfer Station. Eversource.

PROVINCETOWN – An official with Eversource provided insight on the company’s new battery that will provide backup power to residents on the Outer Cape during power outages.

Eversource spokesperson Chris McKinnon said that the Provincetown is at the end of a 13-mile distribution line that’s exposed to potential storms and car accidents.

McKinnon elaborated on how the new battery system will improve reliability for customers in Provincetown during those events.

“So if there’s a fault along that 13-mile long distribution line, we’re able to start picking up the load to customers in Provincetown and able to start restoring them within about a minute,” he said.

The battery recently completed testing and is able to supply 5,700 Provincetown customers during outages.  

McKinnon said that a second component is still under construction and is anticipated to be finished by the end of the year.

“That’s going to allow us to carry a total of 10,200 customers on that circuit. That will include the entire towns of Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet,” he said.

“Looking at peak demand in the summer, we expect the battery to provide backup power for anywhere from 1 to 3 hours, then in the offseason upwards of 10 hours,” McKinnon said.

This time will allow for repair crews to work on the issues to the system while customers are able to maintain service.

The battery was developed as an alternative to building another distribution line which would have required construction through the Cape Cod National Seashore.

McKinnon said the new technology consists of automated switches within the existing infrastructure that isolate sections of the grid when problems occur. Then the backup source “kicks in instantaneously.”

Construction of the battery energy storage system began in the spring of 2020.

McKinnon noted the system is a pilot program and the country’s first to provide power to a micro-grid of this size.

Eversource is hoping to deploy more batteries in the future for reliability and potentially storing energy from wind and solar technology.

By Brian Engles, CapeCod.com NewsCenter