New England wins $389 million to upgrade electric grid for wind power

The federal Department of Energy on Tuesday awarded the New England states $389 million to help the region accommodate more offshore wind power.

While Massachusetts and many other New England states are banking on offshore wind to help slash carbon emissions and meet their ambitious clean energy goals, the onshore electrical grid is not currently up to the task.

The problem is twofold: There aren’t enough electrical substations on the coast for offshore wind projects to plug into, and the power lines that would transmit this electricity to places where it’s needed, like Boston, aren’t robust enough.

The new funding will help remedy this first issue.

Much of the money will be used to upgrade and expand two existing substations — one at Brayton Point in Somerset and the other in Southeast Connecticut — so each can accommodate an additional 2,400 megawatts of power. Taken together, this extra 4,800 megawatts of power is enough to meet the needs of about 2 million households.

The grant will also support the development of the region’s first multi-day battery storage project in northern Maine to help store onshore wind energy.

Right now, a lack of transmission line capacity in northern Maine means that oftentimes, the power generated by onshore wind farms can’t be delivered to southern New England where it’s most needed. The battery storage project should help relieve this bottleneck by storing up to 85 megawatts of power that can be deployed over 100 hours.

“These infrastructure investments will transform the region’s power system,” Weezie Nuara, assistant secretary for federal and regional energy affairs at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said in a statement. She added that the upgrades will enhance electric reliability and resilience, and ultimately help bring down the cost of electricity.

Dubbed “Power Up,” the proposal from the six New England states was submitted in April as part of the Department of Energy’s $10.5 billion Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships grant program. Massachusetts made an unsuccessful solo bid for this grant money last year with a proposal for transmission upgrades in southeastern Massachusetts.

“We are excited to support this groundbreaking project and to partner with our sister New England states,” Elizabeth Mahoney, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, said in a statement. “As Massachusetts increases the amount of renewable energy generated in our region, the successful development of our transmission infrastructure will accelerate the path to a cleaner and more reliable electric grid for our residents and businesses.”

Last month, Massachusetts and four other New England states won a different $450 million federal grant to launch an innovative heat pump adoption program in the region.