Massachusetts Utilities File 1,118 MW, 4,472 MWh Storage Contracts With DPU in First 83E Round
- Policy & Markets Regulatory State & Local Regulation
Marin Holt
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- 5 minutes read
- Contracted storage filed: 1,118 MW / 4,472 MWh
- Largest project (Trimount, Jupiter Power): 700 MW / 2,800 MWh, Everett MA
- Section 83E state target: 5,000 MW by July 2030
- Filed with: Massachusetts DPU, July 2, 2026
Eversource Energy, National Grid and Unitil filed long-term contracts for roughly 1,118 MW / 4,472 MWh of battery energy storage with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities on July 2, 2026, the first tranche of the state’s Section 83E procurement toward a 5,000 MW storage target by July 2030. The three transmission-connected projects, each above the RFP’s 40 MW minimum, would give Massachusetts its first large fleet of utility-contracted storage if the DPU approves the cost-recovery terms.
The three contracted projects
- Trimount (Jupiter Power): 700 MW / 2,800 MWh on a former ExxonMobil oil terminal in Everett. The contract splits 500 MW to National Grid subsidiaries and 200 MW to Unitil’s Fitchburg Gas & Electric Light.
- Energizar (Flatiron Energy): 250 MW / 1,000 MWh in Chelsea, with commercial operation targeted for the second quarter of 2027.
- Salt Cod (Flatiron Energy): 168 MW / 672 MWh at the retired Montaup coal plant site in Somerset, targeting the end of 2028.
The filing follows the Department of Energy Resources’ December 31, 2025 selection of a 1,268 MW portfolio from the summer-2025 Section 83E request for proposals; the contracts now before the DPU total 1,118 MW after attrition. Utility financial analyses submitted with the filing show the contracts would modestly lower most customers’ monthly bills over the next five to 15 years. A second Section 83E solicitation is expected to open in July 2026.
Why It Matters
Massachusetts has almost no utility-scale storage online today, so DPU approval would anchor the state’s first contracted storage fleet and set the ratepayer-cost template for the remaining ~3,900 MW still to be procured by 2030. The economics hinge on the DPU: because the contracts are recovered through distribution rates rather than a wholesale-market clearing price, the department’s cost review determines whether the storage lowers bills as the utilities project or adds to them. Two of the three projects also reuse retired fossil-fuel sites, an oil terminal and a coal plant, reusing existing transmission interconnection points that new greenfield storage would wait years to obtain.
Critical Perspective
Massachusetts filed 1,118 MW / 4,472 MWh of storage contracts as the first tranche toward a 5,000 MW target by 2030, yet the state selected 1,268 MW back in December and already lost 150 MW to attrition before these contracts even reached the DPU. The bigger question the filing sidesteps is cost recovery, because the contracts bill through distribution rates rather than a wholesale clearing price, so the utilities’ promise of lower bills rests entirely on a DPU review that has not happened. Massachusetts has watched state-approved clean-energy contracts unravel before, when Avangrid’s Commonwealth Wind abandoned its offshore-wind agreements in 2023 after costs rose and forced a full re-bid. If a fifth of the selected megawatts vanished before filing, what holds the remaining 3,900 MW to the 2030 deadline once the DPU starts testing who actually pays?
Sources
- Utility Dive: Massachusetts utilities ink contracts for 4.5 GWh of energy storage (July 7, 2026)
- Renewables Now / Energy Storage News: Massachusetts files 1.1 GW of energy storage contracts for approval
- Energy-Storage.news: Massachusetts Section 83E RFP selections (background)
