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Madison Energy Infrastructure is putting Tesla Megapacks on the grid for a Colorado electric cooperative, in a 50 MW battery storage portfolio that is among the first projects backed by Madison’s $50 million agreement with Tesla.
The company said Monday it will deploy 50 MW / 200 MWh of energy storage across three sites for CORE Electric Cooperative, with commercial operations expected by September 2027. The projects are Madison’s largest distributed energy storage deployment to date.
Richard Walsh, CEO of Madison Energy Infrastructure, said the partnership with CORE “exemplifies our Community Infrastructure initiative and commitment to delivering value and benefits close to home,” and that municipal utilities and electric cooperatives “play a vital role in meeting the moment of increasing demand.”
Chris Hildred, CORE’s Chief Energy Supply Officer, said moving the projects into construction “puts us closer to delivering real benefits for our members,” and that the storage will help the co-op “manage peak demand, control power costs, and maintain reliable service” as electricity demand grows.
CORE is a member-owned utility serving more than 375,000 residents across a 5,000-square-mile area along Colorado’s Front Range, making it one of the largest electric cooperatives in the United States. Madison said the portfolio will add capacity on CORE’s distribution system to meet load growth from new development and broader economic expansion.
Battery storage sits at the center of Madison’s Community Infrastructure push, which the company frames as a way for communities to add capacity and prepare for demand from data centers, advanced manufacturing, and other growth. Distributed storage, Madison said, gives CORE a more flexible and cost-effective way to strengthen its system.
That timing lines up with a busy Megapack market. Tesla has said Megapacks are almost sold out for 2027, while developers keep lining up large sites, including a 300 MW Nightpeak project that came online in Texas and a 260-unit order from a Taiwan power firm.
Will more co-ops follow CORE’s lead and lock in Megapacks before 2027 capacity is gone?
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