State calls for offshore wind, hydro bids
It's actually, finally, happening.
The Department of Energy Resources and the state's electric utilities have filed a draft Request for Proposals to implement the offshore wind power provisions of last year's clean energy bill, pushing the move to renewable energy out of the realm of targets and goals and idealistic talk, into the nuts-and-bolts (and wires and switches and relays) phase.
With the draft RFP issued as of last Monday, the state has invited clean-generator companies to create the state's energy supply for the next generation - first with April's call for hydropower, solar and storage proposals, and now with last week's request that offshore wind providers compete to win billions of dollars in construction contracts and set up the electricity infrastructure of the future.
But just because the invitation has been made, that doesn't mean that either it or the underlying law are going to accomplish the goal of a much cleaner, less fossil-dependent, energy future for Massachusetts.
And even if that happens, is the new energy going to be cheap enough and reliable enough to leave the state as a whole better off? Will suppliers make enough money to bother to bid on the projects, and if they do, can the projects be built cost effectively enough for ratepayers?
The questions and uncertainty - and promise - of this moment in the state's energy history are the focus of a State House News Forum planned for May 23 at the Omni Parker House.
"We're talking about $7 billion to $9 billion worth of development - of jobs and construction for Massachusetts," said Ed Krapels, head of the clean-power transmission specialist Anbaric, now ensconced in the fierce high-tech, high-finance, multiplayer chess match endemic to the bid process.
Krapels says the only way to win the game is designing projects that are efficient enough to provide power cheaply enough - the price to build out the new power systems is going to be fixed, with no trotting back to the ratesetters to recoup overruns if the bid winners foul up the design and construction.
"If I don't do this right, I'm out millions and million of dollars," Krapels said. And "right" is defined as proposing work that delivers clean energy to everyone's homes without raising their bills. "If I lose, I lose, and I'll never get that back."
Krapels will be joined by former Sen. Ben Downing, now V.P. of new market development at the solar-power developer Nexamp; Judy Chang, who works at the junction of finance, engineering and regulation as a consultant at the Brattle Group; and Erich Stephens, C.E.O. of Vineyard Wind, a competitor for the offshore generation contract.
Here's a cheat sheet to help with the context of the event, and the high-stakes change in direction it hopes to examine.
Then
An ambitious bill to promote land-based wind farms stalled and died in the Senate in 2010. Last July, after years of contention and delay, Massachusetts lawmakers passed a major renewable-energy bill at the midnight expiration deadline for formal sessions (actually, a few minutes past it). The bill was generally seen as a major victory for the House point of view over the Senate's, and many senators were disappointed the final legislation did not set more ambitious goals to incentivize offshore wind, solar, hydro and small-scale generation, and more generous rewards for conservation.
Now
Whatever the shortcomings of the legislation, it's on the books now, and requires Mass. electric utilities to procure 1,600 megawatts of new offshore wind and 1,200 megawatts of new hydro, solar and land-based wind by 2027. It also promotes distributed-storage technologies - high tech to store power and release it into the grid, reducing the demand on generators. It's tied to legally-required targets for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to specific levels set for 2020 and 2050. By 2050, the Climate Protection and Green Economy Act requires Massachusetts to reduce its carbon emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels. The RFPS issued this spring call for procurement of 400-800 megawatts of offshore wind (half the total target) and 945 megawatts of the other clean-energy technologies. Each phase of new clean energy that goes online has to be cheaper than the phase before. Transmission - running new lines to get the wind and solar and hydro into the existing grid - is as important and involved a consideration as generation, and just as important to get right.
The main issues in play are: who will get to build solar farms and offshore wind projects, and who will get to build the transmission lines to carry the hydro power of Hydro Quebec (the only significant hydro generation player), the solar power, and the incipient offshore wind farms envisioned for the federally-designated zone off Cape Cod? The sexiest part of the story for now is the competition between Vineyard Wind, DONG Energy and Deepwater Wind for the offshore projects. Anbaric is pressing the importance of getting the transmission element right, meaning large-scale; Krapels argues we should build more transmission than we currently need, as an enticement for more clean-energy projects.
The Future
Uncertain. That's the purpose of the forum - to talk about the possibilities and problems with getting from the requirements to the realities. The RFP's contain a series of next steps and deadlines for the mammoth undertaking, listed below - keeping in mind this is only a little more than half of the total construction necessary to carry out the 2016 law.
To sign up for the May 23 forum, click here.
Deadlines and Steps in the Process
RFP One - Hydro and Onshore (Solar and Land Based Wind)
| Event | Date |
| Issue RFP | March 31, 2017 |
| Bidders Conference | April 25, 2017 |
| Deadline for Submission of Questions | May 2, 2017 |
| Submit Notice of Intent to Bid | May 2, 2017 |
| Due Date for Submission of Proposals | July 27, 2017 |
| Selection of Projects for Negotiation | January 25, 2018 |
| Negotiate and Execute Long Term Contracts | March 27, 2018 |
| Submit Long Term Contracts for DPU Approval | April 25, 2018 |
RFP Two - Offshore Wind (Note that the final RFP is not out yet; it's being reviewed by the Department of Public Utilities and could be changed perhaps substantially.)
| Event | Date |
| Issue RFP | June 30, 2017 |
| Bidders Conference | July 19, 2017 |
| Deadline for Submission of Questions | July 26, 2017 |
| Submit Notice of Intent to Bid | July 26, 2017 |
| Due Date for Submission of Proposals | December 20, 2017 |
| Selection of Projects for Negotiation | May 22, 2018 |
| Negotiate and Execute Long Term Contracts | October 3, 2018 |
| Submit Long Term Contracts for DPU Approval | November 1, 2018 |
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