Avangrid joined local officials to inaugurate Eversource’s Cape Cod Solution Phase 1 grid upgrade in Bourne, Massachusetts.
As part of Transmission Support Agreement and Large Generator Interconnection Agreement with Eversource, Avangrid invested $13.7 million to support Cape Cod Solution Phase 1 grid upgrades.
“...New England Wind 1 is already delivering significant benefits by supporting critical grid upgrades on Cape Cod that will not only provide a transmission backbone for the project, but deliver a more reliable and resilient electric system,” said Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra. “The completion of these Cape Cod Solution Phase 1 upgrades, along with future investments through our Transmission Support Agreement, moves New England Wind 1 even closer to delivering power before the end of the decade.”
The New England Wind 1 System Impact Study identified the uprate to 345 kV of a 115 kV transmission line connecting the Bourne Switching Station and the West Barnstable Substation as a required grid upgrade. The line was converted into a 345 kV line, running from the Bourne Substation to the West Barnstable Substation, with the help of the funding.
Initially, the new line will be operated at 115 kV until the 345 kV GIS substations at Bourne and West Barnstable are built, as part of Phase II of New England Wind 1’s grid upgrades.
Additionally, Avangrid has entered into a Host Community Agreement with the Town of Barnstable for the New England Wind 1 project to make landfall at Craigville Beach and connect the power to the Eversource substation in West Barnstable.
The company also submitted multiple proposals for the New England Wind projects to the Massachusetts-Rhode Island-Connecticut Multi-State Procurement for Offshore Wind. The states are anticipated to announce selected projects from the competitive procurement in August 2024.
New England Wind 1 project is expected to start construction by 2025 and achieve commercial operations before the end of 2030, helping achieve 2030 state climate targets set by the New England states, if selected in the current competitive procurement.
New England Wind 1 offers enough clean, reliable energy to power approximately 400,000 homes and reduce emissions equivalent to removing 300,000 gasoline-based cars from the roads annually. The project will create more than 4,400 full-time equivalent jobs, and bring $3 billion of direct investment to the region.
New England Wind 1 will also help catalyze a new staging and assembly port in Salem; bring an offshore wind davit crane manufacturer to New Bedford, Massachusetts; locate Operations and Maintenance facilities in Bridgeport, Connecticut and New Bedford; and deliver an offshore wind training hub with Survival Systems USA at the Port of Davisville in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
Vineyard Wind, an 806 MW project located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, will generate electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, create 3,600 Full Time Equivalent job years as well as save customers $1.4 billion over the first 20 years of operation.
It is also expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.6 million metric tons per year, equivalent to removing 325,000 cars from the roads annually.
