Sunrise Wind, take two: how rebidding restarted New York's stalled offshore project

I · How a rebid actually works

New York does not buy offshore wind power directly. It buys offshore wind renewable energy certificates (ORECs, the state's credit that pays a wind farm a set price for the clean power it delivers), awarded through solicitations that NYSERDA, the state's energy authority, runs every year or two. A developer bids a strike price, the price it says it needs per unit of energy, and if NYSERDA selects the bid, the two sign a long contract.

When costs jumped, Sunrise Wind and other projects asked NYSERDA and the Public Service Commission to simply raise those locked-in prices. In October 2023 the commission declined, holding that a signed contract was a signed contract. Rather than kill the projects, NYSERDA opened an expedited solicitation and let them bid again at current numbers. Sunrise Wind rebid and, at last public report, was selected in the round NYSERDA provisionally awarded in early 2024.

II · What the new terms changed

The clearest change is the price. The rebid strike price came in higher than the 2019 deal, on the order of the mid-$100s per megawatt-hour at last public report, which means the state is paying more per unit of clean energy than it first hoped. That cost flows, eventually and indirectly, into the bills of downstate ratepayers, including yours.

Ownership changed too. Orsted, the Danish developer, bought out its partner Eversource and now carries Sunrise Wind on its own, a project of roughly 924 megawatts per the developer's project page, enough to power something on the order of half a million homes if it performs as advertised. Whether the higher price is worth it depends on where natural gas prices go over the decades the contract runs, which no one can honestly promise.

III · The players, from Montauk to Holbrook

Out past Montauk, the turbines sit in federal water, so the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the federal agency that leases the seabed, holds the permits offshore. The power is set to come ashore at Brookhaven on Long Island and run underground to an existing substation near Holbrook, where it joins the grid that PSEG Long Island operates for LIPA, the public authority that owns the wires.

Once the energy is on the system, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO, the nonprofit that runs the state's bulk power grid and its markets) dispatches it like any other generator. For a city reader, the practical point is that Sunrise Wind lands on Long Island, not in the five boroughs, so its first job is Long Island load. The benefit to Con Edison territory is shared and gradual, not a direct line to your block.

IV · Worth watching this month

1. Onshore construction notices in Brookhaven Town, where roadwork and cable-laying permits signal real schedule more than any ribbon-cutting does.

2. NYSERDA's offshore wind page for the timeline of the next solicitation, which matters far more to the pipeline than any single groundbreaking.

3. Orsted's quarterly updates for any mention of Sunrise Wind's cost or schedule, since the company has written down offshore losses before and could again.

4. The Public Service Commission's offshore wind docket, where a quiet order can change contract terms without a headline.

5. NYISO interconnection notices for the project reaching commercial operation, expected around 2026 or 2027 at last public report, a date that has slipped before.