Energy companies rebid Sunrise Wind project, but not Empire Wind 2

International energy companies on Thursday announced a series of restructured proposals for offshore wind projects around Long Island that rejiggered the field of players as New York State launched a series of local information sessions aimed at smoothing proposed projects' construction.

Among the revelations Thursday: The Empire Wind 2 project that Equinor and bp planned to build more than 20 miles south of Long Beach was not rebid in the latest state solicitation for offshore wind, as the two companies divided up their offshore wind interests.

The decision is a temporary win for some Long Beach homeowners who opposed the project's cable route through the city. Equinor indicated, however, the project could be offered in future state solicitations.

Meanwhile, Sunrise Wind, another project for Long Island to be built off the coast of Rhode Island with a cable connection at Smith Point, was rebid in the process, a victory for communities in Brookhaven Town that supported it and its hundreds of millions of dollars in local contracts and community benefits.

The state will announce award winners in February. Construction has already begun on Long Island for Sunrise, which Orsted said could be completed by 2026.

Thursday afternoon was the deadline for offshore wind developers to resubmit proposals to the state under an expedited process to allow previously awarded projects, and new bidders, the chance to bid with new terms that account for higher costs tied to higher inflation and interest rates.

As part of a restructured partnership, Equinor and bp, which had been jointly developing projects, announced they would essentially divide up their projects in a way that would give Equinor full ownership of the Empire projects, while bp would separately take ownership of their Beacon Wind 1 and 2 projects.

Equinor said Empire Wind 1, with turbines set for placement 12 miles from Long Beach's coast with power destined for New York City to connect at Brooklyn, was offered in the latest state bidding, while bp announced it had terminated the existing state contract for Beacon Wind 1, which was slated to make landfall in Queens.

Unclear from bp's announcement is whether it offered Beacon Wind 1 again in the state solicitation this week. An Equinor spokesman referred questions to London-based bp, which didn't respond to an inquiry.

On Wednesday, Orsted and Eversource, which have been developing the Sunrise Wind project for the state, announced that Orsted would buy out Eversource's 50% interest in the project if it is successful in the new bidding process, among other conditions. Both companies have taken billions of dollars in impairment charges based on the rising costs of the project and others, and Orsted last year nixed plans to build two big offshore projects for New Jersey.

In a related development Thursday, Community Offshore Wind, a joint venture of National Grid Ventures and RWE, announced it had placed a bid for a 1,300-megawatt wind farm off Long Island. Community Offshore Wind was among the winners in separate state bidding process last year.

The announcements come as New York State this week launched the first in a series of road shows featuring state agencies and developers in local communities that may be impacted by the offshore wind projects.

At one session at the Long Beach Public Library Wednesday night, Tim Kramer of Long Beach wasted little time after the doors opened to approach an official of the state Department of Public Service to list the reasons energy turbines off the South Shore will never work.

“You’re industrializing the ocean, you’re harming the wildlife, it’s unreliable, it’s costly and, without the public subsidies, this is a failure,” he said.

Officials listened attentively as the room filled with residents, most of whom seemed opposed to the projects.

“Our intent is general education about the process,” said Greg Lampman, director of offshore wind at the New York Energy Research and Development Authority, which is administering the bidding process, at a separate forum Tuesday at Hofstra University. “The agencies here are talking about their regulatory authority to make sure projects are built safe and responsibly, and help people understand this is a robust process of evaluation and review that developers have to go through to come out the other side.”

But many of those who turned out for the Long Beach session seemed to have made up their minds.

“This is a money grab,” said Jennifer Sarafin of the anti-wind energy group, Protect Our Coast Long Island, NY. The group held a fundraiser Monday to cover the cost of legal representation to oppose the projects in a state review process.

“We don’t want this project in our community,” Sarafin said. “Nothing is going to get us to believe an offshore wind company.”

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, a longtime supporter of offshore wind for Long Island, said the recent public forums are desperately needed.

“Forums like this should have been done a year ago,” she said. “The state has to play catch-up now, but at least they’ve started and they’re engaged in the process.”

She said she believes a majority of people can be persuaded on the benefits of offshore wind and are just looking for factual answers to their questions. “It’s like a political race, there are a number of people who need the facts,” she said.

Esposito said her group had urged Equinor a year ago to change the cable route through the City of Long Beach that wound up engendering so much opposition. Last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill that allowed the proposed transmission cable in Long Beach to move through regulatory hurdles.

“What you saw in the governor’s veto was basically telling developers, ‘You need to do your due diligence and you need to get your local support,’ ” said Lampman. A vote by the Public Service Commission not to allow developers to increase the cost they could charge for wind-farm energy also was a signal that “the PSC was not willing to unilaterally increase rates or cost because it sets an example for future builders that you can come in low and ask for help.”

The signals are already being closely watched by developers. At the Long Beach forum, Randhir Singh, director of transmission and interconnection for Vineyard Offshore, which has a project called Excelsior Wind off Long Island, said his company is considering a wide range of areas from Queens to Jones Beach to land its cable. One of them, he said, could avoid Long Beach and residential areas entirely by placing the cable in a waterway.

“We’ve got a whole bunch of options we’re looking at,” he said. “We have looked at a route through the water as well. It’s certainly more difficult there; there’s dredging and other considerations. We’re not stuck to a particular route at the moment.”

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.