Rhode Island Energy-SouthCoast Wind PPA # 6
Rhode Island Energy, for the fifth time since 2023, has a goal of a PPA, an offshore wind power purchase agreement, by November 1, 2025. A sixth date has not been set yet.
- Power purchase agreements (PPA) enable the purchase of clean energy from a power generation facility directly, in this case, SouthCoast Wind.
Why announce the project power agreement completion dates, and at what point do the postponements become an embarrassment for everyone, including the news media?
The agreement is one in which SouthCoast Wind installs, owns, and operates an energy system and then sells its electric output to RI Energy for a predetermined period. PPAs are advantageous because they allow customers to receive stable and low-cost electricity with no upfront cost, and they enable the energy system’s owner to take advantage of "tax credits" while also receiving income from the electricity.
The World Economic Forum reported that power purchasing agreements rose 35 percent in 2024. The reason given is the need for power in the tech industry and advances in artificial intelligence.
Supply chain & inflation: Wind turbines and battery storage have increased due to global supply chain disruptions and general inflation. These higher development costs are passed on to the buyer through higher PPA prices.
Political policy uncertainty: Shifting political policies, tariffs, and changes to tax credits create a risk premium for developers. To hedge against this uncertainty, they need to raise PPA prices, and those costs are reflected in the postponed contracts.
An antique electric grid constraint. The existing transmission infrastructure is not ready to handle large-scale offshore wind renewable energy projects. For example, the cost of ocean wind submarine cables, onshore infrastructure, battery backup, and electric substations outweighs the turbine purchase price.
In 2023, Massachusetts allowed SouthCoast Wind to walk away from the signed PPA contracts. The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities required SouthCoast to pay 60 million in termination fees. Those remain postponed with a due date of December 2025.
Past power purchase agreements suggest that the era of saving customers money through PPAs may be coming to an end.
With each announcement of a new power purchase agreement date, these agreements face higher costs. The only way to achieve an agreement today is with government credits, which looks doubtful in the current political climate
A utility company that relies on these higher-cost agreements impacts their bottom line, which ends up on Jill and Joe's electric bill.
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Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
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(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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