The PSC, in a unanimous 7-0 vote, rejected the request, citing the fee to shoppers and the affect of probably “corrupting” the integrity of the state’s bidding course of.
Persevering with a pattern amongst Northeast states, New York mentioned “no” Thursday to requests from offshore wind farm builders to rewrite contracts to permit them to cost extra money for supplying energy to the state’s grid.
In doing so, the state adopted Connecticut and Massachusetts in rebuffing makes an attempt by wind energy corporations to renegotiate within the wake of inflation, supply-chain bottlenecks and different financial turbulence hitting the trade.
Equinor and Orsted, two Scandinavian wind giants, had requested the state Public Service Fee to extend how a lot they might cost utilities for energy generated by a number of initiatives in improvement however not but constructed off Lengthy Island’s shores.
The businesses argued that charges have been set in contracts awarded earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic and now ought to be adjusted to account for inflation, rising rates of interest and different associated prices.
The requests assorted for every would-be wind farm however ranged from 27% to 66% for the per-megawatt-hour wind corporations may cost.
The PSC, in a unanimous 7-0 vote, rejected the request, citing the fee to shoppers and the affect of probably “corrupting” the integrity of the state’s bidding course of.
The fee mentioned the businesses mixed have been asking for a $12 billion financial increase, an quantity Commissioner Diane Burman referred to as “jaw dropping” and Commissioner Tracey Edwards termed “simply not doable.”
In Connecticut, an identical rejection led to the cancellation – for now – of what was to be the state’s largest offshore wind improvement. On Thursday, New York commissioners, apparently girding in opposition to attainable blame, made repeated efforts to emphasize they weren’t canceling any contracts and any such resolution can be as much as builders.
A spokeswoman for Equinor, which has three wind initiatives within the works, mentioned the corporate was disillusioned and nonetheless is assessing the affect of the PSC resolution.
An Orsted spokeswoman mentioned the viability of “Dawn Wind,” the corporate’s venture deliberate off Brookhaven, can be “extraordinarily challenged” with out the speed hike adjustment.
“We’ll consider our subsequent steps and talk the standing of the venture as quickly as attainable,” Meaghan Wims mentioned.
