Avangrid sits down with CIP to boost stake in US Park City offshore wind project

Avangrid Renewables is in discussions with Vineyard Wind offshore wind project joint venture partner Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) to increase ownership in their 804MW Park City development that won a competitive solicitation in the US state of Connecticut last year.

“I think whenever you do have good projects, if you can own more and it makes sense, that’s something that we would take into consideration,” Dennis Victor Arriola, CEO of Avangrid, 81.5% owned by Spanish utility Iberdrola, said on a conference call.

“We think that offshore wind is definitely an area where we can continue to be a leader and invest.”

Arriola and his executive team declined comment on reasons why Denmark’s CIP might want to divest in Park City, which has filed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to Connecticut utility regulators for approval. Proposed pricing was not made public. A final decision is expected by mid-August.

The Park City project is scheduled for a 2025 commercial start and will supply the equivalent of 14% of Connecticut’s electric power.

Last October, Vineyard unveiled a plan to re-develop waterfront industrial property in Bridgeport, to fabricate transition pieces for the project and use as a base for an operations and maintenance facility.

Boston-based Vineyard is also developing the 800MW Vineyard Wind I, the nation’s pioneering large-scale offshore wind project south of Massachusetts.

The $2.8bn array whose construction was supposed to begin in 2019 has been a cash drain due to permitting delays. Final federal approval is now expected in December.

Elsewhere, CIP has a much lower profile in the US where it has been increasingly active as an onshore wind investor and more recently, in a green transmission project.

In July, the Danish fund manager sealed an off-take deal for the full 400MW capacity of its planned Panther Grove wind farm in Illinois with AEP Energy. It also announced it would invest $80m equity for construction of the 162MW Bearkat II wind farm in West Texas that it is co-developing with Tri Global Energy.

The two companies earlier collaborated on the 197MW Bearkat I and 148MW Blue Cloud projects in Texas that CIP owns, part of a multi-year 1GW portfolio development in the largest US wind market.

CIP also invested in two Texas wind projects developed by Tri Global with Greek renewables company Terna Energy – fronting mezzanine loans totaling $65m in 158MW Gopher Creek and $61m in the operating 155MW Fluvanna I.

Lastly, CIP funds have also taken an equity stake in the SOO Green Renewable Rail project, a development-stage 349-mile (561km) transmission scheme that seeks to bring 2.1GW of wind and solar power from Iowa towards larger markets near Chicago.

SOO Green is taking a different approach, as the 525kV direct-current lines would run underground along right-of-way owned by the railroad’s successor company Canadian Pacific, as opposed to those overhead that have drawn loud opposition – and lawsuits – from some landowners.

The project is expected to require another 2-3 years of development work, and then three years of construction, leaving it with a current anticipated date of completion in 2024.