Eversource Energy on Tuesday said it will sell its stake in two energy projects in a $1.1 billion deal that helps the New England-based power company exit the troubled offshore wind business.
Eversource said it would sell its 50 percent share in the 132-megawatt South Fork and the 704-megawatt Revolution offshore wind projects, which it owns jointly with Danish firm Orsted, to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).
"Eversource will remain an integral player in this historic shift to a clean energy generation mix by focusing on our strengths as a regulated transmission builder and operator," said Eversource CEO Joe Nolan said.
The deal is expected to close in mid-2024.
The offshore wind industry has struggled with rising inflation, interest rate hikes and supply chain delays, threatening plans by U.S. President Joe Biden and several U.S. states to deploy clean energy to meet power demand and fight climate change.
BP, Equinor and Orsted, combined, recently took roughly $5 billion in writedowns on U.S. offshore wind projects. Offshore wind developers so far have submitted revised bids to supply power to New York state to cope with soaring costs.
Eversource, which has 4.4 million electric, natural gas and water utility customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, said in January it intends to divest its ownership stake in three wind projects it jointly owned with Orsted. The same month, it sold its stake in the 880 MW offshore wind farm Sunrise Wind to Orsted.
Earlier this year, Eversource had said it would record an after-tax impairment charge, other than temporary, of $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion in the fourth quarter related to some of its wind projects.
(Reuters - Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York, Seher Dareen and Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, Tasim Zahid and Michael Perry)
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