Powertown will fund 125 kW or 250 kW batteries at Brockton workplaces with nothing due up front - a laundry puts the cut at about $30,000 a year, and the savings split is blank
The Boston Globe reported on 23 October 2026 from a roundtable the day before. Powertown funds and installs the batteries. It takes a share of the bill saving and a payment from the utility. The share is not printed. Crown Uniform and Linen Service expects about $30,000 a year off the bill at its Brockton plant. Four businesses are first. The company is seeking $6.9 million in the city by 2032. No kilowatt-hours are printed. No solar is named.
A processing plant in Brockton, Massachusetts, is the kind of workplace this battery is built for. The company that owns the battery pays for it. The plant pays nothing up front. The Globe prints an expected bill cut for one site. It does not print the split.
On 23 October 2026 the Boston Globe reported a roundtable the day before, Thursday 22 October, at the Edison building in Brockton. Powertown, a Massachusetts company, said it pays for and installs the batteries. The business pays nothing up front. Powertown takes a share of the savings. It is also paid by the utility when the batteries ease strain on the grid. The Globe does not print the share. It does not print the utility rate.
What the box does, in the Globe's account. The batteries charge when power is cheaper. They come online when the business hits its highest demand. Demand charges follow the maximum rate of electricity use at a facility in a month, such as when large motors or ovens start. The Globe says utilities describe those charges as the cost of a grid built for that peak. Crown's own demand-charge rate is not on the page. The price of the power that fills the battery is not on the page either. A saving that leaves out the fill is not a full bill.
Joe Mulvey, director of operations at Crown Uniform and Linen Service, said the firm expects to cut its electricity bill by about $30,000 a year at its Brockton processing plant. His line in the Globe: "It's like getting a free month's worth of electricity." That $30,000 is his expectation. The Globe does not print last year's bill, the method, or a season of meter data.
Elson Bankoff, chief executive of Powertown, said the company is offering the first relatively small battery for commercial customers in the state, at 125 or 250 kilowatts. She said software is set to tune the saving at each site, and that the size makes permitting and installation easier and faster. "First" and "relatively small" are her description. The Globe does not print a state register of commercial batteries. It does not print kilowatt-hours. A 250 kilowatt battery can be a short box or a long one. Hours are energy divided by power. The energy figure is absent, so the hours are absent.
The rollout, as a plan. Powertown is starting with four businesses in Brockton. It is seeking to invest $6.9 million in the city by 2032. The goal is batteries at 17 commercial and industrial sites and six municipal buildings. The company estimates the network would save the businesses $4.6 million and cut municipal energy costs by $1.2 million over the next 10 years. The first batteries are early 2027. "Seeking" and "estimates" and "goal" are the Globe's words for a plan. They are not money spent, and they are not a receipt.
Eliza Wilson, Brockton's economic development director, said at the roundtable that Brockton is "the first city in Massachusetts to fully embrace this technology." That is her sentence. The Globe does not print a count of other cities. The company said it plans to take the same model to other Massachusetts cities, including Fall River and New Bedford. A plan to expand is not a signed site.
A different program, in the same article, so the two are not one pool. Olessa Stepanova, an Eversource spokesperson, said more than 2,500 residential customers with batteries are in a program called ConnectedSolutions, and that seven commercial and industrial customers with 13.5 megawatts of battery capacity are also enrolled. Those 13.5 megawatts are the utility program. They are not Powertown's 125 or 250 kilowatt units. The Globe does not say the Brockton batteries are enrolled in ConnectedSolutions.
The state line, as the Globe prints it. The Healey administration has set a target of 5 gigawatts of energy storage and 3.5 gigawatts of electricity demand reduction by the end of 2035. The article does not link the state document. A target for the state is not this laundry's invoice.
A larger battery, for scale. The Globe says that in September developers withdrew a proposal for a 125 megawatt battery in Tewksbury, citing rising interconnection costs. 125 megawatts and 125 kilowatts share a 125. A megawatt is 1,000 kilowatts. These are not the same plant.
One emissions line, kept off the bill. The Globe says the batteries could blunt surges that bring on backup plants, and that in Massachusetts those plants tend to run on natural gas or oil. Larry Chretien, executive director of the Green Energy Consumers Alliance, said smaller batteries like Powertown's could be a good solution in the years to come, since they allow communities to keep operating as normal without running those plants or requiring the utilities to spend thousands or millions to upgrade the distribution system in the area. He called the approach "a winner economically for the Commonwealth," and said he is "pretty convinced that most of the time the battery discharges, it's going to be a winner for emissions as well." The page does not price the electricity that fills the battery. It does not print a cents comparison with those plants.
Safety, as the company told the Globe. Powertown said it has briefed the Fire Prevention Association of Massachusetts and is building a feature that alerts fire marshals if a battery shows warning signs of a fire. "Building" is not "installed." The Globe also says battery fires are exceedingly rare. It does not print a count.
No panels. The announcement does not name solar on the roof. A quote that pairs this battery with a workplace solar job is adding a second project the Globe does not describe. This is also not the PJM capacity contract in the 26 October note. The Globe does not name a regional market, a cents rate, or a kilowatt-hour size.
Analogy: the laundry is booking a small tank that fills when power is cheap and empties when the plant's own use spikes. The owner of the tank keeps a slice of the difference. The slice is not on the docket. The $30,000 is one manager's expectation, not the till tape.
Good: A public date, a named workplace, a named size in kilowatts, a named "nothing up front," and a clear blank where the savings split would sit.
Bad: No kilowatt-hours. No solar. No share. No utility rate. The $30,000, the $4.6 million and the $1.2 million are expectations and estimates. The $6.9 million is money the company is seeking. Four businesses are named as a count. One is named as a firm.
Ugly: Pasting $30,000 onto a second site. Reading 125 kilowatts as the 125 megawatt project that was withdrawn. Adding the Eversource 13.5 megawatts to Powertown's plan. Treating a state target of 5 gigawatts as this bill. Treating "charge when power is cheaper" as a full saving when the fill price is blank. Treating the box as rooftop solar.
Soft next step: if an offer uses the laundry's $30,000, the figure is one firm's expectation in the Globe, and the split of the saving is not printed.
Source: The Boston Globe, Kate Selig, 23 Oct 2026 - Brockton businesses are installing fridge-sized batteries to slash electricity bills. Primary for the 23 October report of a Thursday roundtable at the Edison building, Powertown funding and installing the batteries with nothing due up front, a share of the savings plus a utility payment when the batteries ease strain on the grid, with no share and no utility rate printed, batteries charging when power is cheaper and coming online at the highest demand, demand charges based on the maximum rate of electricity use in a month, the utility description of those charges as the cost of a grid built for peak, Joe Mulvey's expectation of about $30,000 a year at Crown Uniform and Linen Service's Brockton processing plant and his line that it is like a free month's worth of electricity, Elson Bankoff's description of a first relatively small commercial battery in the state at 125 or 250 kilowatts, software tuned to each site, and easier permitting and installation, four businesses to start, a plan to invest $6.9 million in Brockton by 2032, a goal of 17 commercial and industrial sites and six municipal buildings, an estimate of $4.6 million saved by the businesses and $1.2 million off municipal energy costs over 10 years, first batteries in early 2027, Eliza Wilson's line that Brockton is the first city in Massachusetts to fully embrace this technology, plans for Fall River and New Bedford, Olessa Stepanova's statement that more than 2,500 residential customers and seven commercial and industrial customers with 13.5 megawatts are in ConnectedSolutions, the Healey administration target of 5 gigawatts of storage and 3.5 gigawatts of demand reduction by the end of 2035 with no state document linked in the article, the September withdrawal of a 125 megawatt proposal in Tewksbury over rising interconnection costs, the emissions line on backup plants that tend to run on natural gas or oil, Larry Chretien's lines that smaller batteries like Powertown's could be a good solution in the years to come, since they allow communities to keep operating as normal without running those plants or requiring utilities to spend thousands or millions to upgrade the local distribution system, on an economic winner for the Commonwealth, and on emissions most of the time the battery discharges, the briefing of the Fire Prevention Association of Massachusetts, a safety feature the company says it is building, and the statement that battery fires are exceedingly rare with no count printed. The article does not print kilowatt-hours, a solar array, Crown's demand-charge rate, the fill price, a cents comparison with gas or oil plant, a savings split, or a statement that the Brockton units are enrolled in ConnectedSolutions. A megawatt is 1,000 kilowatts is a unit fact. Hours as energy divided by power is the definition used here, and the energy figure is absent.