Assessment of Offshore Wind, Solar, Hydroelectric, and HVDC projects and contracts in Massachusetts

On behalf of the Massachusetts Attorney General, Bates White has provided expert services in several recent cases:

Bates White assisted the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office in evaluating petitions filed by NSTAR Electric and Eversource Gas Company to develop and own solar PV facilities paired with BESS on company-owned properties located in environmental justice (EJ) communities, including Brockton, Lawrence, and Yarmouth. Bates White analyzed whether these projects aligned with Massachusetts statutory goals under Section 77 of An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy. Carolyn Berry, Vincent Musco, and Nick Puga submitted an expert report and testified before the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, evaluating the environmental benefits, ratepayer impacts, and adequacy of outreach conducted to the EJ communities.

The Massachusetts Attorney General retained Vincent Musco as a testifying expert to assess two proposed offshore wind projects: a 1,232-MW project to be developed by Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid, Inc., and a 480-MW project to be developed by Mayflower Wind, a joint venture among Shell, EDP Renovaveis, S.A., and ENGIE S.A. Both projects will be located south of Nantucket. Vincent's assessed the competitive procurement process that selected these two projects, the long-term contracts that the three jurisdictional electric utilities executed with the developers, and requests by the utilities to receive additional remuneration payments for being counterparties to the long-term contracts. Vincent testified before the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities in 2022 on this matter.

The Massachusetts Attorney General retained Bates White to review remuneration requests by three Massachusetts electric utilities to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. The requests seek revenues from customers related to third-party contracts for purchased power from certain offshore wind and hydroelectric projects, which were mandated by the Massachusetts legislature. Vincent Musco submitted expert reports to and provided testimony before the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities in these cases.