PROVIDENCE – A series of pre-filed testimony on the power purchase agreement between National Grid Rhode Island and Orsted US Offshore Wind for the Revolution Wind Farm project were submitted to the R.I. Public Utilities Commission Friday afternoon.
The testimony came from government agencies, parties to the project and contracted third parties, including the R.I. Office of Energy Resources, the R.I. Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, Orsted and the Conservation Law Foundation.
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As of 3:38 p.m., all of the testimony filings on April 5 were in support of the wind farm project’s proposed power purchase agreement.
The filings include questions from the PUC on the economic impact, environmental impact of the project and contract, as well as on the background and credentials of the testifiers.
Orsted’s filings were done by DWW Rev I LLC, a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Orsted US. Testimony from the company included that from Orsted US Co-CEO Jeffrey Grybowski, who was the CEO of Deepwater Wind before it was acquired by Orsted in October of last year.
Grybowski noted in his testimony that the final Rhode Island rate of $98.425 per megawatt hour was lower than the company’s original offer to Massachsuetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Connecticut’s rate from the Revolution Wind project was the original rate for the three contracts, 200 megawatts of capacity at $99.5 per megawatt hour. The contract for an additional 104 megawatts is still being negotiated with Connecticut utilities, and it would be sold at the $98.425 per megawatt hour.
Third party, consultant testifiers include parties from Navigant Consulting Inc., The Brattle Group and Power Advisory LLC on behalf of various entities.
Much of the testimony was re-enforcing the touted economic and environmental impacts included in the advisory opinions from the OER, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management and the R.I. Commerce Corp. submitted in March.
The project will feature up to 50 wind turbines creating 400 megawatts of energy and is expected to be operational by 2023, if approved.
Testimony on the topic of remuneration is scheduled to be filed on April 22.
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor. Email him at Bergenheim@PBN.com.
