The SouthCoast Wind project has officially filed to terminate its offtake contracts with three Massachusetts utilities as part of plans to rebid into the state’s upcoming solicitation round.
The company filed testimony with the Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board, which is deciding whether to approve a power line from the project to Massachusetts, saying it has initiated discussions with representatives of Massachusetts and the electric distribution companies to terminate its existing power purchase agreements (PPAs) and that it will rebid the capacity into the next round.
“While SouthCoast has pursued, and is open to other solutions, and even after factoring in potential tax incentives; termination, and payment of a financial penalty for termination, has become the prudent commercial course to realise the project due to material and unforeseen supply chain and financing cost increases affecting the whole offshore wind industry,” SouthCoast Wind Francis Slingsby said.
SouthCoast Wind, a joint venture between Shell and Ocean Winds, has a capacity of up to 2400MW. Under a series of previous procurement rounds, the company secured PPAs for a total of 1200MW of power from three Massachusetts utilities.
“We continue to move our project through federal and state permitting and have the grid connections necessary to ensure delivery of 2400MW of power, the full capacity of our lease area, without needing significant and expensive system upgrades,” Slingsby added.