​ Falmouth Onshore Wind Cable Re-Study 2024

In October of 2023, the governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut signed a Memorandum of Understanding for an offshore wind agreement. The MOU allows all three states to organize and solicit offshore wind projects.

According to the MOU, all three states have the authority that cut costs and raise offshore wind procurements.

Massachusetts offshore wind contractors in 2023 canceled signed power purchase agreement contracts approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. It's expected that these contractors will re-bid the power purchase agreements.

January 2024, Massachusetts extended its new offshore wind solicitations and contracts from January 31 to March 27, 2024. The contract awards will be in October 2024 with the approval of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities after the Presidential election in November 2024.

In the United States, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulates all individual Independent System Operators (ISO).

New England’s Independent System Operator is known as ISO-New England or ISO-NE. ISO New England is an independent, not-for-profit company that performs and plans complex, interconnected roles for the electric region spanning Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and most of Maine.

In the past few years, ISO-New England has been conducting onshore wind cable studies that include, feasibility, system impacts, interconnections, cost estimates, engineering, and cost estimates. These studies must be completed before onshore wind power construction can take place. These studies include the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rules.

The onshore wind cable processes are and have been lengthy as land-based interconnection is expensive. The offshore wind contractors must pay the incremental costs of the entire interconnection as well as the local electric utility company.

On June 8, 2022, the offshore wind contractor for Falmouth changed their onshore wind cable plans from an alternating current project to a direct current project. The proposal requires a six-acre high-voltage direct current converter station on the Cape Cod aquifer.

Since June of 2022, there has not been an environmental impact study for the power plant and cables on Falmouth’s drinking water and Cape Cod's fragile ecosystem.

Each phase of the ISO-New England study process lasts months. Any relatively small modifications to electrical cable size or offshore/onshore generator physical characteristics can trigger re-study requirements.

Offshore wind contractors have been negotiating with the Town of Falmouth since 2019. Recently the offshore wind company agreed with the Town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island to go through their town with the two sets of 1200 megawatt cables to get to the high voltage direct current converter station at the Brownfield site at Brayton Point.

A large Boston offshore wind submarine cable company has proposed an ocean grid superhighway that bypasses expensive local onshore wind installations. The cable routes would go by ocean to the large cities where the power will be used avoiding the need to rebuild the existing electric grid.

Typically when point-of-interconnection sites have even small changes it can restart the interconnection process.

Note # 1 See Massachusetts DOER: January 18, 2024 letter :