Ørsted, Eversource sole bidders for 884-megawatt U.S. wind farm

offshoreWIND.biz:

On 13 March, Ørsted and Eversource announced that they had submitted a proposal for an 884 MW offshore wind farm in Rhode Island’s offshore wind solicitation. At the end of last week, Rhode Island Energy confirmed this was the sole response to its request for proposals (RFP).

“Although we had hoped to see more developers put forward additional proposals within this appeal, we also know there are a multitude of factors at play right now. As we move forward, our evaluation will consider future energy affordability and how this proposal meets the requirements of both the RFP and state law”, said Dave Bonenberger, president of Rhode Island Energy, the state’s primary utility company.

The company opened the solicitation in October 2022, looking to procure an additional 600 MW to 1,000 MW of offshore wind capacity, on top of the existing 30 MW that the state has through the first US offshore wind farm and the 400 MW planned to be added from the 704 MW Revolution Wind project being developed by Ørsted and Eversource offshore Connecticut and Rhode Island. 

Developers were initially invited to submit bids until 1 February 2023. However, in November 2022, Rhode Island Energy made an update to the timeline for the 2022 procurement and moved the deadline to 13 March 2023.

[Adrijana Buljan]

More: ‘We Had Hoped to See More Developers’ – Rhode Island Reviewing the Only Offshore Wind Proposal It Received