Cape Wind Associates, the company behind the 130-turbine wind farm to be built in Nantucket Sound, are urging Massachusetts regulators to require that a merger between NStar and Connecticut-based Northeast Utilities include a condition to buy 50 percent of the power generated by the offshore wind project.
“Think big,’’ said Dennis Duffy, vice president of Cape Wind Associates, who last week filed a letter to the state Department of Public Utilities asking officials to make NStar and Northeast Utilities purchase “the remaining output of the CWA project.’’
Cape Wind has been on the hunt for more customers since National Grid, one of the state’s largest utilities, agreed more than a year ago to purchase half of Cape Wind’s power. Securing another customer would cement Cape Wind’s viability, and help attract investors who can finance the wind farm’s construction. Many have long viewed NStar as the most likely candidate.
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It is preposterous that Cape Wind won’t discuss its conversations with other power buyers. The company says its talks are under confidentiality agreements. But the public should be allowed to see competitive pricing before being forced to swallow this. And NStar owes its customers the most efficient fuel sourcing it can achieve through a merger with Northeast Utilities, without politicians or Cape Wind hijacking its future.
negotiate rates for that power from all suppliers, and should be free from unjustified political influence that favors a pet project. Certainly, without such governmental coercion and preferential treatment this wind scheme would be as dead as its attempts to sell its power or find financing. “Think big,’’ says the vice president of Cape Wind Associates - big utility bills, that is.