Deepwater Wind: No Need for Fee Waiver – Or For Its Boutique Electricity
Deepwater Wind is seeking waiver of a $700,000 fee payable to CRMC. So, in addition to charging two and a half to three times the current market rate for the electricity to be generated, they don’t want to pay a fee that they are legally liable for.
Here’s an idea. Don’t build the project. You won’t have to pay the fee. We won’t have to pointlessly pay a hefty rate premium for the electricity generated by a boutique, feel-good project. Sounds like a win-win. (Have your people call my people …)
[Monique is Deputy Editor of the RISC-Y Business Newsletter.]
Where’s the “Like” button?
38 Studios, will no longer be Don Carcieri’s legacy once people start paying for Deepwater Wind’s electricity
The EPA cited Block Island Power for installing eight new diesel generators without obtaining necessary permits during 1981 through 1993. EPA took Block Island Power to court and in a consent decree, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston January 28, 1998, requires Block Island Power to eliminate or upgrade pollution-causing generators on Block Island and pay a civil penalty of $90,000. Block Island Power was already pursuing plans to install an underwater transmission cable, which was approved by the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission summer of 1997. The cable will allow the company to get its electricity from the mainland instead of relying on diesel generators on the island. The consent decree requires that the cable be installed and operating by December 30, 2000. Should the cable project be delayed, Block Island Power would have to install state-of-the-art pollution control technology on the generators to cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 90-95%. No cable installed and operating by December 30, 2000 by Block Island Power so did they install costly smoke stack scrubbers as required by EPA? Block Island residents would have had to foot the bill for the Block Island Power undersea cable. In steps Deepwater Wind with offshore 30 MW wind project and two way undersea cable to mainland to sell extra power to National Grid. Deepwater Wind indicates they can power 90% of Block Island with wind project and make up 10% from National Grid via cable. Block Island Power gets a mainland cable and all rate payers in Rhode Island pay for cable plus annual COLA. Power from wind turbines is constantly fluctuating power and must be de-rated. 30 MW de-rated 40% = 12 MW continuous power and Block Island requires about 6 MW with 6 MW sold to National Grid. Besides getting to build first… Read more »