Worcester Business Journal

14 Worcester Business Journal | June 2, 2025 | wbjournal.com F O C U S ENERGY & SUSTAINABILITY BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Managing Editor W hile solar and wind power tend to get a lot of the attention in the quest to transition to clean energy, a key tool to help decarbonize New England's electricity grid has already been in oper- ation for over a century. Now owned and operated by West- borough-based Great River Hydro, 13 dams in western New England were the original source of electricity for manu- facturers across Central Massachusetts and beyond in the early 1900s. "We've been renewable since before renewable was really thought about as a thing," Erin O'Dea, CEO of Great River Hydro said. "ese hydro assets have always been part of the energy mix in New England." Under the com- pany's stewardship, its hydropower facilities play an important role in keeping homes powered and keeping machin- ery in the region running. Now embarking on a study to modernize its facilities, Great River is seeking to ensure its infrastructure continues to power New England for decades to come. Powering the Industrial Revolution Great River's origin trace back to the late 1990s, when governments began to deregulate the generation-side of the electricity market in an effort to drive efficiency and cost savings by making Powering the PAST AND FUTURE Westborough-based hydropower firm to update its century-old facilities the market competitive, said Brandon Kibbe, vice president of external affairs for Great River Hydro. Aer the dams went through a few different owners, Great River was formed in 2017. While Great River is a relatively young company, some of its facilities are more than 100 years old, like Vernon Station, located on the Connecticut River and stretching between Vernon, Vermont, and Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Water played a key role in powering the Industrial Revolution in New En- gland from the get-go, but the creation of long-distance, high-voltage power lines meant Central Massachusetts' fac- tories no longer needed to rely on their own connections to the region's rivers, Kibbe said. "In 1909 when the Vernon Station was built, this was the first place that high-voltage, alternating current was Erin O'Dea, CEO of Great River Hydro Operation and maintenance managers visiting Great River Hydro's Deerfield #2 plant in Conway are (from left) Eric Pero, Travis Burroughs, Scott Norrie, Jason Canaday, Matt Kelly, Mike Carroll, Clint Birch, Pat Ashey, and Darren DiBernardo. PHOTOS | COURTESY OF GREAT RIVER HYDRO Great River Hydro's Deerfield #2 station in Conway, capable of 7 megawatts of energy generation, is part of a network of dams and related infrastructure maintained by the company which provides power to New England's grid.

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