Public Power Utilities in Massachusetts Enter Expanded Hydropower Power Purchase Agreement

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
October 16, 2022

FirstLight Power recently announced the expansion of a power purchase agreement with Energy New England (ENE). As part of the agreement, 13 Massachusetts-based public power entities have agreed to purchase over 110 gigawatt hours per year of hydroelectric power produced by two of FirstLight’s hydroelectric facilities in Connecticut.

The agreement will help participating communities continue to make progress toward meeting Massachusetts’ requirements for municipal utilities to obtain 50 percent of their supply from carbon-free sources by 2030 under the climate legislation passed into law in 2021.

Working in collaboration with ENE, the new power purchase agreement will run from 2024 through 2030. In addition, it expands on the successful partnership with ENE and power purchase agreement that FirstLight entered with 21 municipal utilities in 2020, which at the time represented the largest renewable energy purchase by municipal utilities in New England to date.

In 2021, FirstLight extended many of these agreements with several participating utilities including Middleborough Gas and Electric Department (MGED) and Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant (TMLP).

The public power entities participating in the contract include: Belmont Municipal Light Department, Braintree Electric Light Department, Concord Municipal Light Plant, Danvers Electric Division, Groveland Municipal Light Department, Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant, Mass Development Finance Agency (MDFA)/Devens Utilities, Merrimac Municipal Light Department, Norwood Municipal Light Department, Reading Municipal Light Department, Rowley Municipal Lighting Plant, Wellesley Municipal Light Plant, and Westfield Gas & Electric.

As part of the latest agreement with ENE, FirstLight’s Shepaug Generating Station (in Southbury, Conn) and Stevenson Generating Station (in Monroe, Conn) will supply the energy and renewable energy credits.

One of the largest hydroelectric facilities in Connecticut, Stevenson Station was recently qualified as a Class I (in Maine) renewable energy facility. As Connecticut’s largest hydroelectric generation station and the second largest source of carbon-free electricity in the state, Shepaug Station is a Maine Class II renewable energy facility.