Since 2022, Eversource has been telling customers on the Vineyard that the utility company cannot take on any solar projects larger than 15 kilowatts — and in some instances 25 kilowatts — while it plans to beef up a Falmouth substation that services the Island.
The project, which aims to bolster the grid in Chilmark and Aquinnah, was significantly scaled back from Eversource’s original proposal to install 48 poles along Middle Road last year.
Eversource says it is proposing to build the new electric cable, as well as replace one of the existing ones, in order to deliver reliable and safe electricity.
Opposition to the use of herbicides around Eversource power lines continued at a meeting of the West Tisbury select board on Wednesday night, when the board determined to send a letter opposing the practice to the state.
The utility giant is positioned this fall to begin work on a project that will run two new 23-kilovolt power cables to Martha’s Vineyard, eliminating the need for diesel generators.
A 12-minute early morning power outage on the Vineyard was quickly resolved after the cause was located at a Falmouth substation, an Eversource spokesman said Thursday.
The Tisbury town administrator pressed his select board this week to take a tough stance against the ongoing practice by Eversource of spraying herbicides beneath power line rights of way.
Eversource has canceled a long-awaited battery energy storage project planned for Martha’s Vineyard, complicating a plan to achieve ambitious green energy goals on the Vineyard.
