How Power Generation Is Overseen in Massachusetts

No single office runs power plants in Massachusetts. Several agencies each hold one piece of the job, and knowing which piece you need saves weeks of phone calls. This page helps you make sense of the 414 listings in our database, from the Mystic Generating Station on Alford Street in Boston to small solar arrays in towns such as Barre, Charlton and Rutland.

The core rulebook for electric utilities is Chapter 164 of the Massachusetts General Laws. Under it, the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) regulates rates and service quality for investor-owned electric and gas companies. The Energy Facilities Siting Board, which works alongside the DPU, reviews larger generating projects, generally those of 100 megawatts or more, and the transmission lines that connect them.

The Department of Energy Resources (DOER) handles clean-energy policy and incentives. Its Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target program, called SMART, pays owners of qualifying solar arrays and followed the earlier SREC II program. That history explains why a listing such as Bluewave Capital - Grafton (Srec Ii) still carries the older program name.

Air emissions, wastewater and waste-site rules belong to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). Work near wetlands or rivers usually goes before the local conservation commission under the state Wetlands Protection Act. Wholesale power markets and the high-voltage grid are run by ISO New England, the regional operator headquartered in Holyoke.

Which Utility Serves Your Town

Your electric bill tells you which system you are in. Most Massachusetts households are served by Eversource, National Grid or Unitil. These companies own the wires and poles, but since the 1997 restructuring law they no longer own most large power plants. Generation was sold to independent owners that now compete in the regional market.

A second group of towns runs its own system. Massachusetts has more than 40 municipal light plants, including Holyoke Gas & Electric, Chicopee Electric Light and Groton Electric Light. Each answers to a local board or town government, and its rates are largely set locally rather than through a DPU rate case.

Knowing the type of utility tells you where to start:

Power Plants in Massachusetts: How the Map Splits by Region

The state is small, but its geography sorts the listings into clear groups.

Greater Boston. Boston has 13 listings, yet land is scarce and large new plants are rare. The Mystic Generating Station at 173 Alford Street, in Suffolk County, is the best-known name, and its large units retired in 2024. Newer projects in the metro area tend to be rooftop solar, battery storage or campus energy systems rather than big central stations. Just south and west, Norfolk County includes Kearsarge Bellingham PV on South Maple Street.

Central Massachusetts. Worcester County has 93 listings, more than any other county. Open parcels, highway access and nearby transmission lines make it a favorite for solar. Examples in our data include Charlton Solar I on Carpenter Hill Road, Barre II Solar Project on Britton Road West, Pleasantdale Road Community Solar in Rutland and Southbridge PV. Sterling hosts the Chocksett Rd Energy Storage Project, and Fitchburg Gas Recovery in Westminster points to landfill gas. Clark University at 950 Main Street in Worcester also appears, a reminder that campuses often run their own energy equipment.

Pioneer Valley. Hampden County has 63 listings, led by Holyoke and Chicopee with 13 and 11. Holyoke's canal system, built in the 19th century to power mills, still supports hydropower at sites such as Boatlock on Gatehouse Road. Chicopee, Springfield, Palmer, Agawam and Ludlow add solar arrays on former industrial and landfill land, including Ced Chicopee Solar, Cottage Street Solar Facility, Browne Solar, Agawam Solar and Ludlow Landfill.

South Shore, Southeast and the Cape. Plymouth County has 34 listings, nine of them in the town of Plymouth, where the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station stopped producing power in 2019. Today the listings include Big George PV on Federal Furnace Road and, in Wareham, the Onset West Solar Facility. Bristol County lists Acushnet- High Hill in Dartmouth and Braley Road 2 in Freetown, and the former coal-fired Brayton Point station in Somerset closed in 2017. Barnstable County is quieter, with Green Meadows in Sandwich among its listings.

Western and northern counties. Berkshire County has 20 listings, including Doreen on Doreen Street in Pittsfield. Franklin County also has 20, among them Deerfield 4 in Shelburne Falls, and its hills host the large pumped-storage stations at Northfield Mountain and Bear Swamp. In Middlesex County, Boott Hydropower sits on Pawtucket Street in Lowell, and Ebz Solar is in Shirley. Essex County is home to the gas-fired Salem Harbor plant, which replaced a coal station in 2018.

Reading a Power Plant Listing Before You Call

A listing gives you a name, a site address and a county. It does not tell you who staffs the site. Solar arrays, small hydro stations and storage projects are usually unmanned, fenced and monitored remotely, so there is rarely a front desk. Many entries carry no phone number, and Clark University is one of the few in our data that does.

Names can look odd. Abbreviations such as PV mean photovoltaic, which is solar panels, and phrases like Srec Ii or Community Solar point to the incentive or ownership program a project was registered under. Street names often match the road where the array was built rather than any public office, so searching by address works better than searching by project name.

To learn more about a plant near you, try these steps in order:

Do not enter a fenced site to ask questions. Operators control access for safety reasons, and trespassing is a real risk around transformers, penstocks and battery equipment. A written request to the owner or a call to town hall gets answers faster and keeps you on the right side of the fence.

The mix of plants keeps changing. The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008 set the state on a path of emission limits, and the 2021 climate law set a goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The last coal plants have closed, older oil and gas units are retiring, and solar, storage and offshore wind connections are growing. Expect new listings in rural towns and on old industrial sites rather than in dense neighborhoods.

Power plant facilities in Massachusetts include a mix of federal, state, and municipally owned generation assets that contribute to the region's overall electricity supply. Massachusetts's energy mix and the number of publicly owned facilities reflect the state's natural resources, regulatory environment, and historical development of its utility infrastructure.

Power Plant locations are available in 194 cities across Massachusetts. They are spread across 14 counties.

Areas with the highest concentration of power plant locations include Holyoke, Boston, Chicopee, often reflecting proximity to water resources, fuel supply infrastructure, or industrial demand centers.

Residents of Massachusetts who are customers of a municipal or public power utility can contact their local power authority for billing assistance, energy efficiency programs, and information about planned outages or infrastructure upgrades in their service area.

Power Plant by Counties

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Residents of Massachusetts who receive electricity service from a publicly owned utility can visit or contact that utility's customer service office to learn about outage reporting, billing options, and energy assistance programs. For information about a specific power generation facility in Massachusetts, contacting the state's public utility commission is often the best starting point.

Browse Power Plant by county across Massachusetts to find the nearest location.

Before You Call or Visit: Local Steps in Massachusetts

Most power plant questions in Massachusetts end up at the town level, even when the plant is large. Start with the town hall of the community named in the listing. The planning board, building department and conservation commission keep the permits, site plans and hearing records for nearby projects, and many towns post meeting agendas and minutes online.

Next, identify who owns the wires near the site. A plant in Boston, which sits in Suffolk County, connects to a different utility than one in a western hill town, and the interconnection history is kept by that utility. Municipal light plants have their own offices and public board meetings.

Counties help sort the search, but Massachusetts has 14 counties and most no longer run county governments. Permits and records almost always sit with towns. Use the county pages to browse nearby listings, then go to town hall for paperwork.

Bring a few details to any conversation: the facility name as it appears in our listing, the street address, the town and the county. Many projects operate under an owner's name or an LLC that differs from the site name, so the street address is the most reliable way to match records. If a listing shows no phone number, the town clerk can usually point you to the right department.

Finally, keep safety separate from paperwork. For a fire, downed line or gas smell, call 911 and then your utility's emergency line from your bill. Questions about a permit or a hearing can wait for office hours.

Questions About Power Plants in Massachusetts

It depends on size. The Energy Facilities Siting Board reviews large electric generating facilities, generally those of 100 megawatts or more, and issues a state-level approval that can replace several local permits. Smaller projects, including most solar arrays in our listings, go through local zoning, usually a planning board site plan review or a zoning board special permit. Almost every project also needs a connection agreement with the local utility. Larger plants may need an air permit from MassDEP, and any work near wetlands goes before the town conservation commission. If you are unsure which applies, ask the town's building commissioner, who handles zoning questions first.

Call the company that sends your bill. Eversource, National Grid and Unitil each run outage lines and online outage maps, and municipal light plants such as Holyoke Gas & Electric or Chicopee Electric Light take reports directly. If you see a downed wire, a fire or smell gas, move away and call 911 first. Never touch or drive over a fallen line. For repeated outages, write down dates and durations, then ask your utility for a written response. If you are an investor-owned utility customer and the answer is unsatisfactory, you can file a complaint with the DPU Consumer Division.

Many customers can. Under the 1997 restructuring law, customers of investor-owned utilities may stay on default basic service or sign with a competitive supplier, while the utility still delivers the power and handles outages. Municipal light plant customers generally cannot switch suppliers because the town system sells power directly. Before signing with a supplier, compare its per-kilowatt-hour price with the utility's current basic service rate, check whether the rate is variable, and read the cancellation terms. The Attorney General's office publishes consumer guidance on electricity suppliers, and the DPU lists licensed suppliers.

Usually not without an appointment. Solar arrays, storage sites and hydro stations are typically unstaffed and fenced, and operators restrict entry for safety. Some owners, universities and utilities offer scheduled tours or public viewing areas, especially at hydro or historic canal sites, so ask first. Contact the owner or town hall, say who you are and how many people are in your group, and ask about safety rules such as required footwear. Where a listing has no phone number, the town clerk can point you to the owner or to the department that handled permits. Never climb a fence or walk onto a canal wall for a better look.

Most have closed. Salem Harbor's coal units shut in 2014, and a gas-fired plant opened on the site in 2018. Brayton Point in Somerset, one of the largest coal plants in New England, closed in 2017. Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth stopped operating in May 2019 and is being decommissioned by its owner, Holtec. The large Mystic units in Boston retired in 2024. Some of these waterfront sites are now being reused for grid connections, storage or offshore wind support, so an old plant address in our directory may describe a very different site today.

Start with the town's planning board and zoning board agendas, which are public. Large ground-mounted solar and battery projects usually need site plan review or a special permit, and hearings must be advertised, with abutters notified. Attend, ask town hall for the application file, and submit written comments before the hearing closes. Conservation commission hearings cover wetland impacts and are separate. If a project is large enough to go to the Energy Facilities Siting Board, its docket is public and allows interested people to request a role. Ask town hall which board is handling the file so you do not miss a deadline.