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BOSTON — Massachusetts residents already pay some of the highest electricity prices in the country and the state is going to need a lot more power as it tries to make a big shift away from fossil fuels. So how much will it cost to generate cleaner electricity with offshore wind?

The pricing details for the state’s latest slate of offshore wind projects won’t be available until contracts are put on file this winter and it is clearly a sensitive topic for the industry and its boosters in state government. The projects chosen this month are widely expected to cost ratepayers more than previous projects, and the Healey administration would only say that they will be cost effective when compared to the cost of building other power generation projects in the future.

Boston area electricity prices were 64 percent above the national average last month, federal data show, and Massachusetts abandoned its attempt at forcing a declining cap on offshore wind power prices in 2022 when it eliminated the legal requirement that each new project selected charge a lower price than the previous one.

Sen. Mark Montigny, a New Bedford Democrat who hailed the “generational economic development” his city and others are seeing from the offshore wind industry, also made clear this month that he was uncomfortable with the way offshore wind pricing has been handled. He said in a statement that Massachusetts “must carefully examine the impacts these deals will have upon ratepayers who simply cannot afford unsustainable energy costs.”

“More scrutiny and proper oversight from government is essential if we are to avoid another embarrassing situation such as when companies were allowed to walk away from legally enforceable contracts following foreseeable inflationary pressures in the market or when a blade failure exposed a complete failure in preparation and public communications,” he said. “Shielding project costs and the impact upon ratepayers from this procurement until winter is not an acceptable start. Our residents deserve less cheerleading from regulators and other government officials and more aggressive scrutiny that’s totally transparent to the public.”

Healey’s office said price information will be made public when contracts are filed for Department of Public Utilities approval. Contract filing has been scheduled for Dec. 18, but state officials say that is merely a target and instead referenced “winter” multiple times. The bidding documents give the state-led evaluation team “the right to revise the schedule as necessary.”

While we wait for specifics from the most recent procurement and to have a measuring stick ready, here are the prices associated with past Massachusetts projects:

  • Cape Wind — 18.7 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), approved in 2010 and ceased development in 2017.
  • Vineyard Wind 1 — 8.4 cents per kWh, approved in 2019 (total price in nominal dollars).
  • Mayflower Wind (804 MW) — 7.8 cents per kWh, approved in 2020 and canceled in 2023 (total levelized price in nominal dollars).
  • Mayflower/SouthCoast Wind (405 MW) — 7.7 cents per kWh, approved in 2022 and canceled in 2023 (total levelized price in nominal dollars).
  • Commonwealth Wind — 7.2 cents per kWh, approved in 2022 and canceled in 2023 (total levelized price in nominal dollars).
  • Boston area household average electricity price in August 2024: 30.5 cents per kWh.
  • Nationwide household average electricity price in August 2024: 17.7 cents per kWh.

5 replies on “Bay State’s offshore wind prices about to reset”

  2. I knew this was going to be a ripoff, they come in promising clean energy so of course Democrats and the Green fanatics jump all over it, and when the project is completed with cost overruns, we the people, the suckers will be paying three times the national average for power generated by wind that’s also hurting the fishing industry.
    Once again New Bedford and South Coast rate payers get screwed! Do you think Montigny and healy really care? Of course not, they have their $200,000 annual salaries, another $50.00 per month doesn’t hurt them, it’s the little people who will be paying for this joke they call a wind farm when they should really call it a license to print money. I can’t wait to leave this dump of a state run by corrupt politicians, I wonder how much the illegal immigrants are paying for gas, oil and electric? $0 because we the tax payers not only pay our bills, but we’re forced to pay for the growing welfare class, and the illegal immigrants, and we can thank all the ignorant voters for electing Democrats over and over again, no matter how many times they get screwed, the ignorant braindead voters just keep right on electing idiots like Elizabeth Warren the liar, the same state representatives, state senators, and the same useless city councilors.
    I hope the increase the electric rates to $5.00 per kw hour, you fools who reelect Democrats deserve to get screwed and be forced to choose between food, healthcare, and electricity, it’s the perfect punishment for you.

  3. It’s not bad enough that the delivery charges for gas is sometimes 10 times the cost of whet I use for natural gas now let’s gouge the consumer for electric all this green stuff just puts the burden on the working class maybe they should pass another law that allows us to vote ourselves a raise that covers the cost all the increases oh how foolish of me only politicians can vote themselves raises maybe when the working class people are all homeless the politicians will get the message oh thier I go again being foolish they just don’t care about thier are to busy giving my hard earned money away yo let that bother them

  4. Energy supply vs delivery rates are separate right??

    Boston area paying 30 cents is that for the combined supply and delivery?

    Are these wind project prices just for supply rates I would assume.

    Add delivery rates to the wind prices which could be around 10 cents give or take usually higher than you want to pay.

    Example Delivery: 10 cents
    Example Wind Project Supply: 10 cents
    Total= 20 cents per KwH

  5. Don’t compare the energy supply price to the full electricity rate in Boston or anywhere else. That rate includes distribution costs which in Eversource territory are more than half of the total. I am currently paying an energy supply rate of 17.372 cents per kWh through the New Bedford Municipal Aggregation program with a premium for one hundred percent renewable generation.

    Levelized cost means a constant price over the term of the contract, like the payment on a thirty-year, fixed-rate mortgage. I do not think the actual energy charges are structured that way over time. In any case, don’t compare them directly with today’s energy costs which are subject to inflation of equipment cost as capacity is added and to increases and fluctuations in fuel costs as happened when natural gas prices spiked.

    Offshore wind is a good choice for New England because that is where the best wind is and given our dense settlement patterns we would have difficulty siting equal capacity of wind or solar on land.

    The potential environmental impacts of offshore wind genetatipn should be considered but so must the aggregate contribution to stemming climate change. Building resiliency along our coastlines, reparing weather event damage, and understanding and adapting to changes in our animal and plant surroundings including nrw disease vectors will be costly. They just don’t show up in a simple monthly bill.

    Yes, transparency is good, but so is accuracy and clarity of thought.

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