Plugging In/ Energy

With Commonwealth Wind out, focus turns to Mayflower

Rhode Island officials want wind farm to explain itself

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AVANGRID PULLED ITS Commonwealth Wind project out of the latest Massachusetts offshore wind procurement on Friday, and now many are wondering what the lone remaining participant, Mayflower Wind, will do.

When Avangrid on October 20 asked the Department of Public Utilities for a one-month delay to negotiate adjustments to its power purchase agreement in the face of soaring inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain challenges, Mayflower seconded that call.

After the DPU told the two wind farm developers to either stand by their original contracts or back out of the procurement, Mayflower stood by its original contract while Avangrid eventually decided to drop out.

But Mayflower’s stance is causing more confusion than clarity. Regulators and public officials in Massachusetts have been tight-lipped about the situation, but officials in Rhode Island are demanding answers. 

Mayflower needs Rhode Island regulatory approvals to run a transmission line from its planned offshore wind farm up the Sakonnet River, making landfall in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, before plunging back into the water in Mount Hope Bay and heading to Brayton Point in Somerset, Massachusetts. Brayton Point offers an interconnection to the regional power grid.

The situation isn’t sitting well with Ronald Gerwatowski, the chair of the Rhode Island Energy Facilities Siting Board, who learned about Mayflower Wind’s financial problems from reading reports in CommonWealth.

Gerwatowski, whose board must decide if Mayflower’s path through Rhode Island is feasible, was startled to learn that the company was telling Massachusetts officials that its project “may no longer be economic and financeable without adjustments to the power purchase agreements.”

Even when Mayflower told the Massachusetts DPU that it would abide by the original terms of its power purchase agreement, it included a cryptic caveat. 

“Mayflower will seek to resolve with the petitioners and the Commonwealth the [economic challenges] discussed above, beginning by providing petitioners and the department with detailed third-party analysis demonstrating challenges to financeability, with the goal of finding solutions that provide value to ratepayers,” the wind farm developer said.

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Bruce Mohl

Editor, CommonWealth
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About Bruce Mohl

Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.

About Bruce Mohl

Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.

Gerwatowski’s conclusion? “Given the apparent status of the proceedings in Massachusetts, there exists a very real and present issue as to whether the Mayflower Wind project is economically and financially viable,” he said.

Having no desire to launch a regulatory process that may prove to be unnecessary, Gerwatowski initially gave the company until Monday to explain itself, but he granted the wind developer a delay after it said that “despite diligent efforts to date Mayflower and its witness(es) need more time to prepare.” The company, a joint venture of Shell Oil and Ocean Winds, declined to comment to CommonWealth.

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