Parent company FirstEnergy now has the option to take a 20% stake in new Shell-owned offshore wind transmission development company.
Bringing the energy generated by offshore wind farms to shore could be considered the “easy” part of connecting an offshore wind farm to the grid at least as compared to the process and grid upgrades required to get that energy interconnected onshore and delivered to customers on the East Coast, which will require a slew of new substations, transmission and distribution lines.
On November 1, FirstEnergy company Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L) said it and partner Mid-Atlantic Offshore Development, LLC (MAOD) were awarded the construction responsibility to connect the energy generated by New Jersey’s offshore wind farms to the power grid.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) selected the proposal — the Larrabee Tri-Collector Solution (LTCS) — out of 80 submitted by 13 different transmission developers in the nation’s first so-called coordinated offshore wind transmission bidding process, said the companies.
MAOD is a new company owned by Shell New Energies US, LLC and EDF Renewables North America. Now that the project has been awarded, FirstEnergy has the option to acquire up to a 20% equity stake in MAOD with BPU approval.
