It is very important that we clarify that the “Onboarding of cables at Falmouth Heights” is still very much in the cards, and we certainly would not want any misleading information to deter members or others from attending the June 8th, 2022 Public Forum, at the Lawrence School Auditorium, expressing their opinion, and/or showing their support in opposition on this matter.
If you cannot attend, please email the Select Board ASAP.
With regard to the current status of the Mayflower Wind Cable project, we are aware that a misleading email has recently been circulated, which has also been picked up and published by several social media sources.
The ambiguous email had as its subject : “Mayflower Wind Shifts Away From Falmouth Massachusetts” and contained wording stating:
“Mayflower Wind’s 83CII proposal originally called for injecting that power into the electric grid via an interconnection in Falmouth, Mass. on Cape Cod. But given the Commonwealth’s need to get this power delivered sooner than later, Mayflower is seeking approval to shift delivery of that 800 MW to its interconnection site at Brayton Point.”
This is basically old news, in that we already know that Mayflower will bring their initial 1200MW cables to Brayton Point in Somerset, but the commentary concerning Falmouth, while it is not inaccurate, is very misleading and apparently was taken out of context from several recently published articles about Mayflower’s $120 million investment in their SouthCoast Project, i.e. Brayton Point area.
Click here to read one of the recently published articles from the Fall River Reporter.
To confirm and clarify this matter, we have reached out to Mayflower directly asking whether there have been any changes with respect to intentions as to onboarding cables at Falmouth Heights.
Below is the response we’ve received from Mayflower:
QUOTE from Kelsey Perry, Mayflower Wind Community Liaison (bolding by FHMNA editor):
“Thank you for reaching out about this, hope all is well.
“This announcement does not change Mayflower Wind’s plan for interconnection in Falmouth. Mayflower has a commitment to provide 1,200 MW of power to the Commonwealth by the end of this decade. Our interconnection site at Brayton Point in Somerset, MA is ready to take that power and feed it to the grid. The transmission system on Cape Cod however will require significant grid upgrades to be able to accept the offshore wind power planned to connect in Falmouth. While ISO-New England and the utility companies resolve those issues, Mayflower will continue to pursue its landfall at the Heights and infrastructure in the Town of Falmouth so that for future procurements and when the grid is ready, we will be able to deliver more of our clean power to the people of Massachusetts.
“As we have discussed before, our entire offshore wind lease area has a total capacity of 2,400 MW, depending on technologies. ISO-New England has a planning requirement that, in effect, limits the capacity of a single project at a single point of interconnection to no more than 1,200 MW. As a result, developing the full potential of the lease area will require two points of interconnection (Brayton Point, Somerset and Falmouth).
“That said, this announcement really means that Mayflower will deliver the 1,200 MW awarded through the 83C II and III procurements to Brayton Point, Somerset first, and the delivery of the next 1,200 MW to Falmouth would occur in a subsequent phase.
“I am more than happy to have a phone call to discuss further. This is a difficult topic to wrap your head around even for people who write about it for a living.
“Kind regards,
“Kelsey Perry
“Community Liaison Officer
“Mayflower Wind”
UNQUOTE
Fraternally,
FHMNA Board of Directors