BURLINGTON — FirstLight, a leading clean power producer, developer, and energy storage company, announced the expansion of the company’s landmark municipal utility power purchase agreement (PPA) with Energy New England (ENE).
As part of the agreement, 21 New England municipal public power entities — including, locally, Westfield Gas & Electric — have agreed to purchase 197 gigawatt hours per year of clean, local, cost-competitive hydropower produced by two of FirstLight’s hydroelectric facilities in Massachusetts. The original PPA between FirstLight and ENE’s customer group was executed in 2020, and at the time, it represented one of the largest municipal electric department purchases of clean energy in New England history.
The expanded PPA will extend through 2040 and will provide enough energy to support the year-round power demands of approximately 20,000 homes in the participating communities per year for the duration of the deal, while allowing the municipal electric departments to keep costs low for ratepayers. All ENE member municipalities already meet Massachusetts’ requirement for municipal utilities to obtain 50% of their power supply from carbon-free sources by 2030, well ahead of the mandated deadline.
“We are proud to expand our successful collaboration with Energy New England and the 21 ambitious municipal utilities who’ve proven through strategic action that clean energy, affordability, and reliability can coexist to meet the energy needs of our communities without compromising on cost or service,” said Justin Trudell, president and CEO of FirstLight.
“As the clean energy future that we’re working toward faces new roadblocks, the value of existing clean energy generation has never been clearer,” he added. “FirstLight’s clean hydroelectric projects throughout New England have powered our communities for generations, providing good paying union and non-union jobs, creating accessible recreation spaces for the public to enjoy, and, through agreements like this one, supporting participating communities by delivering a reliable clean energy product and needed cost certainty during otherwise uncertain times.”
In addition to the original PPA structured with ENE in 2020, a subsequent expansion in 2022, and this expansion through 2040, FirstLight has executed a number of additional agreements with individual New England municipal utilities.
“We are excited to expand our partnership with FirstLight, and are incredibly proud that, despite headwinds with clean energy expansion, our members have doubled down on transitioning to clean energy sources and, years ahead of the Commonwealth’s mandate, have achieved power portfolios comprised of at least 50% clean resources,” said John Tzimorangas, president and CEO of Energy New England. “Our members have shown that these long-term procurements with existing clean energy resources and trusted partners like FirstLight are not only beneficial in supporting compliance with state mandates, but they also provide the reliable, local, and cost-competitive electricity our ratepayers depend on us to deliver.”
Through the expanded agreement, participating municipal utilities will receive power and equivalent renewable energy credits from FirstLight’s Cabot and Turners Falls hydroelectric facilities. FirstLight’s Cabot Generating Station, located on the Connecticut River in Montague, is Massachusetts’ largest conventional hydropower facility. First put into service in 1916, the facility comprises six generating units with combined output of 62 megawatts, enough to power more than 50,000 homes. Turners Falls, just upstream of Cabot, consists of five generators with combined output of six megawatts, and was commissioned in 1905.
