National Grid, RWE rebid expanded offshore wind project in NY auction

Six months after New York state canceled an offshore wind auction due to a key supplier's decision not to produce the wind turbine that winning bidders planned to use, developers of one of those projects have resubmitted their bid and more than doubled their project's proposed capacity.

On Oct. 18, National Grid PLC and RWE AG announced they had submitted a new bid for their Community Offshore Wind Project joint venture to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The companies said that, if selected, their project would be built in two phases and could provide up to 2.8 GW of power when complete.

That capacity figure was much larger than the 1.314 GW the two companies proposed last year when they submitted the bid for Community Offshore Wind for the first time, as part of a previous NYSERDA offshore wind solicitation. In an Oct. 21 email, Dan Sieger, head of development for Community Offshore Wind, said that first proposal envisioned only a single-phase project.

NYSERDA selected the original version of Community Offshore Wind, along with two other offshore wind projects and 22 land-based renewable generation projects, in October 2023 as part of a huge clean power solicitation. The other offshore wind projects approved were the 1.404-GW Attentive Energy One Offshore Wind Project proposal from TotalEnergies SE, Rise Light & Power, and Corio Generation Ltd., and the 1.314-GW Excelsior Offshore Wind Project from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners P/S' Vineyard Offshore. The 25 projects selected in that solicitation had a combined capacity of some 6.4 GW.

Turbine troubles

However, NYSERDA canceled the results of the tender in April, citing GE Vernova Inc.'s February 2024 decision to scrap plans to build a large version of its Haliade-X offshore wind turbine with capacity of up to 18 MW in favor of smaller models with capacity of 15.5-16.5 MW. All three of the selected offshore wind projects had planned to use the larger turbines in their facilities.

GE Vernova's move "caused technical and commercial complexities between provisional awardees and their partners, resulting in the provisionally awarded parties' inability to come to terms," NYSERDA said at the time.

After the failure of that solicitation, NYSERDA launched a new offshore wind tender July 17, with a bidding deadline of Sept. 9 for non-price information and an Oct. 18 deadline for offer pricing.

Sieger did not specify what type of turbines Community Offshore Wind would use in the project's latest iteration.

"NYSERDA structured this solicitation in a way that grants developers flexibility to make the supply chain investments that make the most sense for our individual projects," he said. "We will develop our plans for turbine technology in consultation with NYSERDA, federal agencies, and our supply chain partners if we are awarded a contract."

Sieger said the project would use "the best and most appropriate technology that is available when we start construction."

In addition to Community Offshore Wind, NYSERDA disclosed that it received three other proposals in the most recent solicitation. Vineyard Offshore submitted a revised, 1.35-GW version of Excelsior Wind, while the Attentive Energy One developers submitted a new version of their project as well, albeit with capacity reduced slightly to 1.275 GW. Ørsted A/S also submitted a proposal for a 1.485-MW project, Long Island Wind.

According to NYSERDA's public calendar for the current solicitation, the agency expects to notify winning bidders of their preliminary selection by Nov. 8, while contracts are expected to be finalized in the first quarter of 2025.

Environmental statement

Meanwhile, on Oct. 21 the US Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the completion of its final programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) for more than 488,000 acres in the New York Bight area offshore New York and New Jersey.

The PEIS covered the area where BOEM awarded six lease areas, including the one belonging to Community Offshore Wind, in a February 2022 auction. That solicitation earned the government more than $4.3 billion — a figure that BOEM says is the highest amount earned from any offshore energy auction, including oil and gas lease sales, in the country's history.

"BOEM has collected input from tribes, federal and state government agencies, local communities, ocean users, and key stakeholders as part of our comprehensive environmental review," BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein said in a press release. "We appreciate the feedback we have received, and we believe our regional approach will provide a solid baseline for future environmental reviews for any proposed offshore wind projects in the New York Bight."