Powering up the Grid

Last month a $19.5 million dollar federal grant kick started a power project that expands the  Provincetown battery storage, microgrid, and energy management work to bring new levels of power resiliency to more than 200,000 electric customers on Cape Cod.

How is Cape Cod becoming more power resilient?

15 November 2024 - CAPE COD, MA - Cape Cod’s power demands are getting a boost with a recent $19.5 million dollar federal grant to help Eversource and partner Cape Light Compact build on the success of the Provincetown battery project. The full $69 million 5-year effort will scale the microgrid and DERMS technology to more than 200,000 electric customers on Cape Cod.  Bottom line for Cape Codders? Fewer outages, shorter outages, and a stronger efficiently managed power grid.

What is DERMS?

DERMS stands for Distributed Energy Resource Management System. The technology lets grid operators essentially orchestrate energy from multiple sources – including both utility owned generation as well as those owned by individuals or other organizations who have agreed to feed into the grid as needed. Think of DERMS as being a web of energy that can be directed in the most efficient way possible  rather than one single end-to-end channel.

What is happening during the development effort?

The new expansion touches about 206,000 Cape Cod electric customers The battery microgrid area will be expanded all the way from Provincetown into Orleans and most of the Cape will become part of DERMS energy ecosystem.

The project also include an enhanced partnership between Eversource and the Cape Light Compact. While Eversource builds the technology, Cape Light Compact will work to expand and enhance its work on an active demand response effort called Connected Solutions. In active demand response, grid operators manage peak time demands by pulling additional power from many sources into the grid. Connected Solutions strategies include drawing on home storage batteries and managing power use through smart thermostats.   

How does this project represent the power future?

The work from the grant is intended to be leveraged and scaled said Eversource's VP of Grid Modernization Jennifer Schilling.

"Combining the Eversource assets with customer assets is going to magnify the benefits of the project," she said, adding that "One of the things we're trying to do with the project is show how this can be applied in other places."

"It's a whole new world" said Anuj Mathur, Manager of Technology Projects for Eversource.

"In the past we thought of it as a one way street' from power generation to consumption " added Dan Schell, Cape Light Compact's Manger of Customer Service and Outreach. "It really is becoming kind of an intricate highway as opposed to that one way street."