Infrastructure Bank In The News
The Pascoag Utility District, which serves around 5,000 customers in two areas of Burrillville, imports its electricity from Rhode Island Energy and the regional power grid via two five-mile feeder lines that connect to a substation.
The problem? Pascoag’s customers need about 13 megawatts of capacity on the hottest summer days, when air conditioners are running. That "peak load" bumps right up against the thermal capacity of the two feeder lines.
Something needed to be done to ensure reliability. And the old-school way of approaching the problem could have been quite expensive.
So in 2019, Pascoag studied the issue, looking at rebuilding both feeder lines, and also evaluated rebuilding only one. The costs penciled in at around $6-12 million, along with other necessary upgrades.
“That would be a lot for our customers to absorb,” said Pascoag Utility District General Manager Mike Kirkwood in an interview.
The third option involved working with an outside company called Agilitas Energy. Agilitas would build, pay for, and manage a 3-megawatt battery system to shave peak demand. Pascoag would pay only around $1.5 million to rebuild its substation, something it had to do anyway.
The batteries charge during times of lower demand, then discharge when demand is at its highest. The peak-shaving would result in financial savings through wholesale power market participation, and that savings would be shared between Pascoag and Agilitas.
“So, they finance the battery storage facility and share transmission and capacity savings with the utility district,” said Kirkwood. "And it saves us from having to make a large up-front investment."