08/24/2022
Thanks to everyone for their patience last night. We just wanted to provide you with some additional information based on some of the comments that were posted on Facebook last night.
We do not purchase our electricity from RI Energy (formerly National Grid). We have several places we purchase electricity from throughout New England. RI Energy provides electricity for the rest of the state (except for Block Island and PUD) but our power flows through the electric grid into RI Energy’s territory and comes in through RI Energy’s substation in Nasonville then down into two feeder lines into our substation in Pascoag. If there’s a problem at the Nasonville substation it impacts the flow of power to our substation. We work closely with RI Energy when this happens to reroute power through one of their other substations.
The Battery Storage project’s purpose is to reduce load on the feeder lines during high peak days. It’s not designed to be used as a primary source of power. During extremely hot days when the demand is increasing past our typical peak, PUD is able to discharge the battery system in order to keep the load on the feeder lines below capacity. The Battery Storage project helps us manage load on our feeder lines and is a more cost effective solution than upgrading both our feeder lines.
In any event, we’re happy to educate our customers on how our utility’s electric system works as the process is pretty involved. We appreciate all the positive comments we received from all of you 😊!
