In addition to its jointly owned resources, MMWEC enters into bulk power purchase contracts and other arrangements to meet the power supply needs of its Members as efficiently and economically as possible.
Massachusetts municipal utilities receive 53 megawatts from the Niagara Hydroelectric Project in New York, above, under a contract managed by MMWEC.
MMWEC offers an All Requirements Power Supply Program through which program participants pool their electric loads and resources to achieve greater efficiency and economy in New England’s wholesale power marketplace. The All-Requirements participants delegate certain decision-making authority to an MMWEC program administrator, who can act on behalf of participants to complete certain transactions.
MMWEC administers contracts and other arrangements covering the purchase and delivery of inexpensive hydroelectric power from the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to Massachusetts municipal utilities. Under an agreement with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU), the official Massachusetts bargaining agent for NYPA power, MMWEC acts as the agent for DPU in overseeing the Massachusetts allocations of power and energy from one federally licensed, NYPA-operated hydroelectric project in New York.
The 53.3-megawatt Massachusetts allocation of NYPA hydroelectric power is distributed to the residential customers of all 40 Massachusetts municipal utilities, based upon on each utility’s number of residential customers and residential load.
The Hydro-Quebec Interconnection is an approximate 2,000-megawatt, direct-current electric transmission line connecting central New England with the Canadian utility Hydro-Quebec. Construction of the U.S. portion of the interconnection, which stretches from Groton/Ayer, Mass. to the Canadian border in northern Vermont, was a joint effort of many New England utilities, including most Massachusetts municipal utilities. Thirty-two Massachusetts municipal utilities own usage rights over approximately 4 percent of the interconnection, either through MMWEC or independently. MMWEC owns approximately 1 percent of the stock in several of the companies that operate the interconnection on behalf of numerous municipals. MMWEC also manages the ownership interests of all but two of the Massachusetts municipals involved with the project.
MMWEC entered into a long-term Power Purchase Agreement for 11.56 megawatts of hydroelectric energy from six generating plants located in New Hampshire and owned by Eagle Creek. The resources are run of river hydroelectric facilities whose output is utilized by 13 MMWEC contract participants, located in the communities of Ashburnham, Boylston, Chicopee, Holden, Ipswich, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody, Russell, Shrewsbury, Wakefield, West Boylston, and Westfield.
The Eagle Creek Hydro portfolio consists of River Bend Hydro, Bow Street Hydro, Lochmere Hydro, Gregg Falls, Pembroke Hydro, and Clement Dam.
MMWEC entered into a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement for the Hancock Wind Project located near Ellsworth, Maine. MMWEC is under contract to purchase 37.5 megawatts of the output of the Project. The Project entered commercial operation in late 2016. The output is being utilized by 17 MMWEC contract participants serving the communities of Boylston, Chicopee, Groton, Holden, Holyoke, Ipswich, Mansfield, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody, Russell, Shrewsbury, Sterling, Templeton, Wakefield, West Boylston, and Westfield.
