New England Utility Eversource Unloads Wind Energy Assets

Written by Daniel Graeber for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--New England utility company Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) (Hartford, Connecticut) said it's now a "pure-play regulated pipes and wires utility" after shedding some of its wind energy assets.

Eversource said Tuesday it sold off its 50% stake in the 132-megawatt (MW) South Fork Wind project and the 704-MW Revolution Wind project to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) (New York, New York).

"We have reached an important milestone today in our commitment as a pure-play regulated pipes and wires utility that delivers superior service and value to our customers," Eversource Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Nolan said.

Eversource is the electric service provider for some 4 million customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The latter is its largest service territory, covering around 5,600 square miles, double its footprint in Massachusetts.

None of its service areas were impacted by Hurricane Helene, which left some 4 million consumers in the dark, though Eversource deployed line workers to the southern states impacted by the storm.

On the release of its assets to GIP, Eversource suggested it took a loss.

"Adjusted gross proceeds from the sale were reduced by approximately $375 million as compared with the expected purchase price of approximately $1.12 billion," the company explained.

The company attributed much of the loss to delays at Revolution Wind. Danish energy company Ørsted (Fredericia, Denmark), the project's developer, announced in August that completion would be delayed a year to 2025 because of contamination at a development site in Rhode Island.

Nevertheless, the first wind turbine for the facility was installed in August. South Fork Wind, the other asset from Eversource, was completed in March. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project and Plant Databases can click here for detailed reports on the Revolution Wind and South Fork projects, and click here for the related plant profiles.

The United States is far behind its peer economies in terms of offshore wind energy capacity, with only a few turbines spinning so far in U.S. territorial waters. By its very nature, wind energy is intermittent, with third-quarter capacity expected to be about 30% less than during the three months ending March 31.

The federal government, however, expects total wind energy capacity, including onshore, will expand by 4% next year to reach 470 billion kilowatt hours, slightly less than half of the expected capacity from all of the renewable energy resources on the U.S. grid.

Offshore, however, is still slow to develop. The federal government delayed a lease sale for bidders looking to develop wind energy off the coast of Oregon due to a lack of investor interest.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek (D) in November threw her support behind floating wind installations off the state's coast, with more than 200,000 acres poised for potential development. That would help with state efforts to achieve net-zero emissions from its utility sector by 2040.

The areas under consideration off the Oregon coast could support as much as 2.6 gigawatts of wind energy.

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