Plus Power Activates Maine’s First Utility-Scale Standalone Battery, Expanding New England Footprint

New updates have been reported about Plus Power.

Plus Power has begun operating its Cross Town Energy Storage facility in Gorham, Maine, marking the state’s first utility-scale standalone battery project and the largest installation of its kind on the ISO New England grid. The 175 MW / 350 MWh system is designed to charge during periods of low demand and discharge during peaks, providing capacity, balancing intermittent renewables, and dampening price spikes across the regional market.

State policy support for storage was a key factor in Plus Power’s investment decision, with Cross Town contributing materially to Maine’s 400 MW storage target by 2030 and its goal of sourcing 90 percent of electricity from renewables by 2030 and 100 percent by 2040. Strategically sited on about 5 acres next to Central Maine Power’s 115 kV Moshers substation, the asset is positioned on a congested part of the grid, enabling Plus Power to relieve transmission bottlenecks and help move wind generation from northern Maine to load centers in southern Maine and Boston.

For ISO New England, the Cross Town project adds flexible capacity at a time when conventional gas and other thermal units are retiring, reinforcing system reliability during increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Plus Power’s CEO, Naveen Abraham, emphasized that the company intends to deepen its collaboration with ISO New England as large-scale batteries prove their operational value in capacity, energy, and ancillary service markets.

Cross Town uses 156 units of Sungrow’s PowerTitan battery platform, selected for performance in Maine’s variable climate, and was engineered and constructed by Maine-based Cianbro Corporation, indicating Plus Power’s use of local partners to execute its buildout. The project is the company’s second operating storage asset in New England, following the 150 MW / 300 MWh Cranberry Point facility in Carver, Massachusetts, which came online in spring 2025 and delivered critical supply during a June 24 scarcity event when real-time prices spiked to $1,110 per MWh, more than double the daily average.

Both Cross Town and Cranberry Point operated at full availability during Winter Storm Fern, providing ISO New England with dispatchable support to maintain service through severe cold, underscoring the resilience value of Plus Power’s portfolio for the region’s grid. More broadly, Plus Power now manages 1,650 MW / 4,150 MWh of operating battery capacity across nine facilities in Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, and Texas, within a 11 GW development pipeline spanning over 20 U.S. states, positioning the company as a significant independent player at the intersection of energy infrastructure, technology, and capital in the evolving storage market.