Eric K. Runge, representing Mayflower Wind as the author of the letter below, is an Attorney at Law with the firm Day Pitney LLP, One Federal Street, 29th Floor, Boston, MA 02110, T: (617) 345-4735 F: (617) 206-9350, ekrunge@daypitney.com. He has filed the following document with the Mass EFSB .
(All bolding in the letter below is by FHMNA).
January 23, 2023
Robert Shea, Esq.
Presiding Officer
Energy Facilities Siting Board
One South Station, 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02110
RE: Mayflower Wind Energy LLC, EFSB 21-03/D.P.U. 21-142/21-143
Dear Presiding Officer Shea:
In its letter of December 9, 2022, Mayflower Wind Energy LLC (Mayflower Wind) committed to providing updates approximately every forty-five days to the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) on the status of its transmission connector project interconnecting in the Town of Falmouth (Project). Mayflower Wind has continued its diligent efforts to address the reasons that it suspended the above-noted proceeding and has continued with other Massachusetts state and local permitting processes. (1)
Regarding the ISO New England Inc. (ISO-NE) interconnection process, on January 6, 2023, ISO-NE issued a memo stating that due to the withdrawal of several projects from the Second Cape Cod Resource Integration Study (Cluster 2), the Mayflower Wind Project is the only relevant remaining project in the interconnection queue on Cape Cod besides the set of projects in the first Cape Cod Cluster System Impact Study (Cluster 1). Given that the Mayflower Wind Project was the only project remaining in Cluster 2, ISO-NE terminated Cluster 2 and will now study Mayflower Wind’s Project individually in serial queue order after Cluster 1. Although this change provides some certainty regarding the process, it has not yet provided clarity on timing or other aspects of the Mayflower Wind Project’s interconnection. Mayflower Wind will continue to work with ISO-NE on the interconnection process.
As a permitting update, since its last letter, Mayflower Wind requested a 12-month extension to the Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) Phase 1B Archaeological Monitoring Permit within the Town of Falmouth. The original permit was set to expire on February 3, 2023. By letter from the MHC dated January 19, 2023, Mayflower Wind received an extension of the Phase 1B Archaeological Monitoring Permit to January 19, 2024. This extension will allow Mayflower Wind to obtain final access agreements and allow for more favorable weather conditions conducive to fieldwork.
Finally, Mayflower Wind remains actively engaged with the Town of Falmouth, despite some challenges to moving forward. Mayflower Wind is committed to bringing clean, renewable energy to the citizens of Massachusetts and New England and plans to continue its efforts with the Town of Falmouth as the host community for the Project.
Mayflower Wind will continue to provide these periodic status updates approximately every forty-five days, until such time as it makes an appropriate substantive filing. Please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned should you have any questions about the contents of this letter. Please include this letter in the EFSB and Department dockets listed above.
Sincerely,
Eric K. Runge
cc:
Service Lists
Andrew Green, EFSB
Joan Evans, EFSB
Wayne Wang, EFSB
Geneen Bartley, EFSB
Mark Marini, DPU
(1) In its December 9, 2022 letter, Mayflower Wind noted that it originally requested to temporarily suspend the proceedings due to uncertainty regarding the outcome of ISO-NE interconnection processes for interconnection requests on Cape Cod, and additional discussions with Falmouth regarding the routing for the Project.