The winning proposals were planned to be selected by today, 7 August, but the deadline was postponed yesterday (6 August) as the US Department of Energy, through the second round of its competitive Grid Innovation Program, granted USD 389 million (approximately EUR 356 million) for the New England states’ Power Up New England proposal.
The proposal includes upgrades to interconnection points in Southeast Massachusetts and Southeast Connecticut to prepare the onshore transmission system for up to 4.8 GW of additional offshore wind generation capacity, and a multi-day battery energy storage system in Northern Maine to enhance grid resilience and optimize the delivery of renewable energy.
On 6 August, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and the state Electric Distribution Companies (EDCs) notified the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) that they were “extending the Bid Selection Date and all subsequent solicitation schedule dates by approximately 30 days.”
DOER states in the notification letter that it needs additional time to consider any impacts to the solicitation from the federal grant to New England states.
Massachusetts has moved the deadline for selecting the winning bids to 6 September and the long-term contracts would then be executed by 8 November and filed for approval by the DPU by 18 December.
Rhode Island Energy, the largest utility in Rhode Island, which is running the state offshore wind solicitation, has also amended the schedule , postponing the bid selection date to 6 September and the execution of contracts to 8 November. The utility expects the contracts will be submitted to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) by 13 December.
Connecticut has also announced the US federal grant for transmission upgrades but the filings on its Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) website related to the offshore wind solicitation have not (yet) been updated with a new schedule.
Follow offshoreWIND.biz on: