Burlington Company Inks Hydro Power Deal With Municipal Utilities

BURLINGTON, MA — A batch of renewable energy credits and clean energy will flow into more than a dozen municipal public power networks across Massachusetts beginning in 2024 thanks to a deal last week between the Burlington-based FirstLight Power and Energy New England, a regional trading organization.

FirstLight announced the deal last Tuesday. Under the agreement, 13 utilities will buy upward of 110 gigawatt hours per year of hydroelectric power from a pair of hydroelectric facilities in Connecticut.

That annual supply would be enough to power just over 10,200 homes based on the national average yearly energy consumption for a residential customer in 2020, as documented by federal Energy Information Administration last fall.

The deal will take effect in 2024 to run through 2030.

Participating utilities serve customers in Belmont, Braintree, Concord, Danvers, Groveland, Hingham, Devens, Merrimac, Norwood, Reading, North Reading, Wilmington, Lynnfield, Rowley, Wellesley and Westfield.

Energy will come from facilities in Southbury, Conn. and Monroe, Conn. Both sites are large hydroelectric dams in southwest Connecticut.

News of this deal comes as many ratepayers across the state face skyrocketing utility costs amid natural gas price and supply chain issues linked, in part, to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The deal also comes as municipal utilities face a state requirement to draw at least 50% of their electricity supplies from "non-emitting" sources by 2030.

The non-emitting category includes everything from nuclear power to hydroelectric power.

A report in April of this year by the Massachusetts Climate Action Network showed municipal utilities pulling an average of 38.2% of their electricity from non-emitting sources as of 2020. Much of that electricity came from nuclear power plants, though, with a comparatively smaller proportion coming from hydroelectric, wind, solar and biogas.

“These thirteen communities are showing tremendous climate leadership by choosing locally produced, cost-competitive, and clean hydropower to advance their own clean energy goals,” First Light President and CEO Alicia Barton said in her company’s announcement last week. “Long-term clean power commitments such as these agreements not only bolster our region’s ability to decarbonize the electric grid, but they also lock in affordable energy supply for Massachusetts homes and businesses at a time when fossil fuel prices are driving customer bills up.”

Energy New England bills itself as a “wholesale risk management and energy trading organization,” coordinating efforts and needs across New England municipal utilities.

The organization has finalized other agreements with FirstLight in the past, now expanding efforts with this latest deal.

“We are incredibly proud that our members continue to lead the way by aggressively procuring new sources of clean energy to meet Massachusetts’ 2030 requirements for municipal utilities,” Energy New England President and CEO John Tzimorangas said. “Not only have our members made major strides in meeting the state’s goals; they have also shown that these long-term procurements help deliver safe, reliable, and cost-competitive electricity to ratepayers across the Commonwealth.”