A spokesperson of Orange, Conn.-based Avangrid's Park City Wind project said the company is still committed to the renewable energy project and plans to redevelop a part of Bridgeport's waterfront as a staging area for the project, despite pushing back its completion date.
Avangrid's Craig Gilvarg told Hearst Connecticut Media, and reported Nov. 3 by Hearst's Middletown Press, that the delay was announced in late October during the company's third quarter earnings call with Wall Street analysts. In a written statement, he added the delay, which pushes back when the wind farm becomes operational from 2026 to 2027, "does not impact Avangrid's plans for Bridgeport, which will play a central role in the Park City Wind project."
"Avangrid continues to work closely with the Bridgeport community and the state of Connecticut to create new, well-paying clean energy jobs and build valuable Connecticut-based offshore wind capabilities along with a trained workforce prepared for future projects, while helping the state meet its clean energy goals," he said.
But when asked to provide a timeline for the Bridgeport part of the development, he declined to comment beyond the statement.
The wind farm is planned to be built 15 mi. south of Massachusetts's Martha's Vineyard to produce enough electricity to power about 400,000 homes.
Avangrid's latest reassurances about the Park City Wind project come four months after Hearst Connecticut Media reported that a zoning change had complicated the project's future.
Bridgeport's Barnum Landing is a 15-acre piece of land at 525 Seaview Ave. It will be used during the construction phase of the Park City Wind project for storage and assembly of the part of the wind turbines that anchor the body of the machines to the steel foundation.
A nearby three-acre port location would serve as an operations and maintenance hub for the wind farm after the completion of the construction phase, the MIddletown news source noted.
Improved Agreement With Massachusetts Needed
Park City Wind CEO Pedro Azagra Blàzquez said the one-year delay in the project as well as for Avangrid's Commonwealth Wind effort, 7 mi. south of Park City Wind's site on the Atlantic Ocean, is necessary because the company's focus "is on improving the project economics and renegotiating our PPAs [power purchase agreements] because of the difficult environment."
He told financial analysts that Avangrid has asked that state officials suspend their regulatory review of the project for a month as the company negotiates with Massachusetts to make the PPA more financially viable.
"We did these projects in 2019 and 2021, respectively," Blàzquez explained. "Since then, the markets experienced meaningful and anticipated changes due to high inflation and supply chain constraints and higher capital and borrowing costs, making it necessary for us to pursue changes to the PPA terms, which we believe are modest and achievable."
Gilvarg added the delay also will allow the Park City Wind project "to take advantage of the next generation of wind turbine technology advancements."
When asked if Connecticut's PPA contained any clauses that either prohibit renegotiating or provide for financial penalties for delays, a state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) spokesman told the Press that "DEEP will review any Park City Wind Request for contractual amendment at the time it is submitted to determine if such amendment is in the interest of ratepayers and helps further the state's energy goals including reliability, environmental, economic development and equity."
The Park City Wind project is expected to generate an estimated $890 million in direct economic development for Connecticut.
Trio of Avangrid Projects Planned
Park City Wind is one of three wind farms that Avangrid has that are in various stages of development.
The company's Vineyard Wind I project is the furthest along, according to Blàzquez, and is already under construction. That wind farm will generate enough energy for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts when it begins operating sometime in 2024.
"The project is progressing well and remains on track with the construction plan," he said.
The second, Commonweath Wind, is projected to generate 1,200 megawatts of renewable energy for Massachusetts — enough electricity to power 750,000 homes.
The three New England projects would generate tens of thousands of jobs during the construction phase, most of which will be in Massachusetts and Connecticut, according to Blàzquez, and will generate more than 1,500 long-term sustained jobs during the operational life of the project.
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