GlobalFoundries outlines GF Power utility plan, solar and battery projects to Vermont committee

GlobalFoundries' senior manager Jeffrey Cram told the Vermont House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on Jan. 30 that the company has spun off an internal utility, GF Power, and is assembling a power portfolio that will include on-site solar, a 15-megawatt battery and other measures to meet renewable standards and control operating costs.

The presentation matters because GlobalFoundries is the state’s single largest electricity consumer and a major employer in Essex Junction. Cram said the company consumes about 340,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually and employs roughly 1,800 people in Vermont; those figures, he said, make control of energy costs central to the plant’s competitiveness and to decisions about further investment in the state.

Cram said GlobalFoundries (GF) established GF Power after the Vermont Public Utility Commission approved the utility in October 2022. GF Power began operations in February 2023 and currently operates as a direct customer of ISO New England and Vermont Gas, and under a four-year transitional power purchase agreement with Green Mountain Power that Cram said runs through September 2026. "We started operating in February of 2023," he said, and the transitional PPA with Green Mountain Power "will end in September of 2026, and we'll be fully making all of our own decisions on energy…