Surging grid upgrade costs force cancellation of proposed Tewksbury battery storage facility

TEWKSBURY, Mass. — For a year and a half, residents in Tewksbury have been fighting a proposed battery energy facility on Hillman St., concerned for their safety, and quality of life.

The project has already cleared a major hurdle, approved by the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board back in June.

Though, now the company behind the project, Hillman Energy, is pulling the plug and residents are celebrating.

In a ‘Motion to Withdraw’ filed on Tuesday, Hillman Energy said, “The company’s cost to upgrade the grid greatly exceeded previous estimates, making this project economically unviable.”

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Back in June, Massachusetts officials raised concerns about new findings from a study that looked at what it would take to connect a group of large energy projects to the regional grid.

Tewksbury officials say Hillman had initially expected to pay about $15M to connect.

Though, the town says Hillman was recently told the price tag would be roughly $65M, and the company behind the grid connection, ISO New England, was not willing to come down.

The town says Hillman tried to find another company willing to take over the project, but couldn’t, so the likelihood of all this resurfacing is slim.

For people who live nearby, that means the project they spent a year and a half fighting is now off the table.

“It’s a big deal because this was never the right site,” Sandra Poole said.

“It brought our community closer. External opposition brings people together, and we all fought as hard as we could,” Bob Schleicher said.

For Maureen DiPalma, who is responsible for all the surrounding businesses and Emerald Court (the 55+ community at the helm of this fight), she feels the added pressure played into the decision.

“The fact that we were not going to sit back and let this happen without giving it everything that we had, they decided to withdraw,” DiPalma said.

Hillman is asking the Energy Facilities Siting Board to formally close the case.

The board has not yet ruled on that request.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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