This summer, the developers of the Sunrise Wind (Ørsted and Eversource) and Empire Wind 1 & 2 and Beacon Wind projects (Equinor and BP) filed petitions with the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC), seeking price adjustments to their contracts with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
Illustration; Substation installed at South Fork Wind Farm, New York’s first offshore wind farm; Photo source: South Fork Wind/Twitter
In response to the petition filings, NYSERDA filed a document with estimates on how much the requested modifications would increase the strike prices of the four offshore wind farms and also noted that some components of the petitioners’ requests were not directly related to inflationary pressures.
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The increase in strike prices for Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind would amount to over 60 per cent if all requests are accepted.
NYSERDA in favour of inflation- and global market conditions-related price adjustments.
The developers requested enhanced terms in their offshore renewable energy credit (OREC) contracts that would adjust for inflation, and also include interconnection cost adjustment, with the joint venture between Equinor and BP also requesting an extension of the contract by five years for the 810 MW Empire Wind 1 offshore wind farm (from 25 to 30 years).
In their petitions, the developers said that without price adjustments their offshore wind projects might not be able to move forward, with Ørsted and Eversource saying that without this intervention “it would not be able to obtain a final investment decision (FID) allowing it to fully construct the Project” and the Equinor-BP joint venture noting that price adjustments would “restore the Projects’ ability to attract the capital required for them to move forward”.
