Offshore wind price amendment under active consideration

BOSTON -- A proposal to get rid of the part of the 2016 clean energy law that requires each new offshore wind procurement to be cheaper than the last remains among the House budget amendments actively being discussed by leadership.

Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia Haddad, D-Somerset, filed the amendment (#280) to strip the price-control provision because the South Coast Democrat is concerned that it could discourage competition among developers seeking to land the state's next offshore wind contract.

Vineyard Wind, the company selected from the state's first procurement, came back with a price of 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, a price hailed as remarkably competitive. Haddad said the concern is that the requirement to come in at a lower price might keep some developers from competing for the next procurement, expected to be put out to bid sometime next month.

"We're talking about it," Haddad said Wednesday on her way from the House Chamber to a meeting to discuss her amendment. She said she filed the amendment, which mirrors a standalone bill she filed in January (H 2867), to "have a conversation about the potential for an issue here."

The amendment is categorized as "legislation, non-budget," a category the House chips away at throughout its budget debate as representatives reach consensus around particular issues. It is unclear when the House might consider the amendment.

Utility companies and the state tapped Vineyard Wind to construct an 800-megawatt wind farm 15 miles south of Martha's Vineyard and 34 miles from the mainland to fulfill the first half of a 1,600 MW procurement called for in a 2016 clean energy law.

The governor has said his administration will formally solicit the second 800 MW procurement authorized under the 2016 law by this June.