Outage on Oct. 13 in Provincetown part of normal backup battery operation, Eversource says
PROVINCETOWN — Eversource customers experienced brief power outages in mid-October, but the minor blip in service revealed that the company's new backup battery system, called the Outer Cape Battery Energy Storage System, is working.
On Thursday, Oct. 13, Eversource customers received notice of the outage around 3:30 p.m.
Due to equipment issues at the Wellfleet substation, the battery backup kicked in, making sure customers along the 13-mile distribution line still had power.
The lights went off when Eversource had to move customers, who had been automatically switched onto the battery, back onto the main grid.
How many customers lost power and for how long?
“The battery storage did work properly and kept customer’s lights on, but because we do not have all critical systems in service yet, in order to safely return the area to normal power source, it was necessary to take short outages to switch,” said Christopher McKinnon, an Eversource senior media relations specialist.
According to McKinnon, approximately 4,500 customers experienced three outages of less than one minute and about 5,000 customers experienced a 12-second outage during the transition off the battery.
“The outages that did occur were switching related and very short,” he said. “The take-away from us is that we are happy to see BESS do what it’s supposed to. The battery picked up the load and worked as its designed to, which was exciting to see happen. The brief outages were necessary to turn the battery off and get people back on the grid.”
The battery backup system was put in place to provide the 10,200 customers along the distribution line with emergency power in case of an outage. The $49 million project is the first of its kind for the utility company.
The battery is housed at the Provincetown transfer station. The project is an alternative solution to providing reliable power through a second distribution line.
Controlled outages still possible
Going forward, McKinnon said, controlled outages will still be necessary when it comes to the safety of crews performing work on the electric system.
“Even with BESS in place, and able to provide backup power to our customers, there may be times when it becomes necessary to take controlled outages,” he said.
Once all systems are fully tested and in service, the outages are expected to be minimal.
“Long-term reliability and power quality improvements are expected for our outer Cape customers in the years to come,” McKinnon said.
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