Rhode Island Regulators Approve Revolution Wind Power Contract

Rhode Island regulators last week have approved a 20-year power-purchase agreement with DWW Rev I, LLC – a joint venture of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource – for the offshore wind energy that the Revolution Wind project will deliver to the state.

The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission today unanimously approved Ørsted and Eversource’s long-term power contract with National Grid for 400 megawatts of clean energy from Revolution Wind.

Revolution Wind, Rhode Island’s second offshore wind farm, will generate enough clean energy to power more than 270,000 average Ocean State homes each year – about a quarter of the total electricity used by Rhode Islanders annually. The project will save Rhode Island electricity customers millions of dollars in energy costs over the life of the project.

"We’re grateful for the RI PUC’s approval of this important project. We’re ready to get to work to deliver dramatically more offshore wind energy, jobs and energy savings to Rhode Island," said Thomas Brostrøm, CEO of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind and President of Ørsted North America. "We’re proud to be Rhode Island’s partner in a project that builds upon the success of the Block Island Wind Farm to now truly transform the state’s energy future."

"Rhode Island is making tremendous strides in achieving the state’s ambitious clean energy goals. With Revolution Wind set to deliver a quarter of the state’s total electric load, offshore wind is now poised to become a major component of the state’s energy mix," said Lee Olivier, Eversource Executive Vice President for Enterprise Energy Strategy and Business Development.

Once permits are in-hand, local construction work on Revolution Wind will begin as early as 2020, with offshore installation starting in 2022 and the project in operations in 2023. Offshore oceanographic and geophysical survey work began in 2018.

Ørsted and Eversource are committed to investing $40 million in Rhode Island for local port improvements. The companies expect to make ProvPort a major construction hub for Revolution Wind, and are targeting Quonset for the long-term operations center. The project will create 800 construction jobs and 50 permanent operations and maintenance jobs.

The State of Rhode Island selected Revolution Wind in May 2018 through a competitive and collaborative bid review process with Massachusetts.

Revolution Wind, located in federal waters roughly halfway between Montauk, N.Y., and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., is designed to serve as regional energy center. Connecticut separately selected 300MW from Revolution Wind to power that state.

Ørsted operates America’s first offshore wind farm – the 30MW Block Island Wind Farm, developed by Deepwater Wind – in Rhode Island. The five-turbine offshore wind farm has been in operations since 2016.

Ørsted and Eversource jointly own leases capable of delivering more than 4,000 MWs of clean and affordable offshore wind energy to New England and New York. Together, Ørsted and Eversource are the market leader and the region’s partner in achieving a sustainable energy economy. The partnership of Ørsted and Eversource is successfully developing the South Fork Wind Farm to serve Long Island and the Revolution Wind project to serve Rhode Island and Connecticut.