A private equity firm based near Washington, D.C. has taken ownership of nearly 1,400 megawatts of hydroelectric, storage and solar generation scattered across Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Hull Street Energy announced it completed its acquisition of FirstLight's U.S. generation platform from the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, closing a deal that reshapes who controls a major piece of New England's power grid. The sale includes Northfield Mountain, the pumped-storage hydro station in Massachusetts long regarded as the region's largest single energy storage facility.
According to a release from Hull Street Energy, the completed transaction covers a portfolio of nearly 1,400 MW of clean, reliable generation in the Northeast. That includes 14 hydroelectric stations spread across Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, plus three operational solar and battery facilities. The deal, first reported in May by gazettenet.com, has now officially closed, though the price of the sale has not been disclosed, per that outlet's reporting.
Northfield Mountain itself is a 1,168 MW pumped storage hydro project that the release describes as the largest energy storage facility in New England. Pumped-storage plants work by moving water to an elevated reservoir when electricity is cheap and plentiful, then releasing it through turbines to generate power when demand spikes. A 2016 report from WBUR noted the facility could theoretically ramp from zero to full output in about 10 minutes and sustain that output for roughly eight hours, and that it was then undergoing relicensing to operate for another 50 years.
A Transaction Split Across Borders
The sale did not include FirstLight's Canadian holdings. The gazettenet.com report specified that the transaction would only cover FirstLight's operations in the United States, and the company's employees were expected to transition with the assets under Hull Street Energy's ownership. PSP Investments confirmed it retains ownership of FirstLight's Canadian operations, which will now operate under a new name: Caelo Energy.
Caelo Energy runs 18 hydroelectric facilities across Quebec and Ontario, totaling 202 MW of installed capacity, with a development pipeline of nearly 1 GW, according to the same PSP Investments release. Patrick Gut has been appointed chief executive officer of the newly branded company.
Why Dispatchable Power Matters Right Now
The acquisition lands amid broader worries about New England's grid as older, dispatchable power plants retire while demand keeps climbing. Sarah Wright, founder and managing partner of Hull Street Energy, said dispatchable resources are increasingly important as the resource mix becomes more intermittent and demand grows, a point she made in comments tied to the firm's separate acquisition of two PJM-based power plants reported by finance.yahoo.com. In comments reported by gazettenet.com around the FirstLight deal, Wright said the retirement of dispatchable generation in New England has left the region struggling, and Hull Street Energy identified Northfield Mountain as playing a critical role in maintaining grid reliability across the region.
A 2022 report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory noted that New England has just under 2 GW of installed conventional hydropower and a similar amount of pumped-storage hydropower, together accounting for roughly 10% of the region's present capacity, according to a document hosted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. That backdrop underscores why a facility the size of Northfield Mountain carries outsized weight for grid planners even though it represents a single asset.
Leadership and Legal Teams Behind the Deal
FirstLight's leadership is staying in place. Justin Trudell, FirstLight's president and CEO, will continue leading the business in the Northeast following the acquisition, and said FirstLight looks forward to continuing to lead the business in partnership with Hull Street Energy, according to the Hull Street Energy release. Troutman Pepper Locke and DLA Piper served as legal counsel to Hull Street Energy on the transaction, per the same release.
Hull Street Energy, founded in 2014 and headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, describes itself as a private equity firm focused on the U.S. power sector, investing in electricity infrastructure spanning generation, storage, transmission, distribution and energy services. As citybiz reported, the FirstLight purchase expanded the firm's exposure to hydropower and energy storage infrastructure and strengthened its clean energy portfolio. The acquired assets will continue providing electricity generation and energy storage services to regional power markets as electricity demand across the Northeast continues to grow.
