BP has withdrawn the application for the transmission system that would connect its Beacon Wind offshore wind project, planned to be built off New York, to the grid on land.
The application, submitted in 2022, concerns the transmission infrastructure that was planned to run from the boundary of New York State territorial waters to a grid connection point at the Astoria Power Complex in Queens.
“Beacon Wind hereby withdraws its Article VII Application effective as of this date, without prejudice”, the law firm representing BP, Young/Sommer LLC, said in a letter filed with the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) on 19 February.
The move comes shortly after the State of New York revealed its next offshore wind solicitation may be for “generation-only” projects, wherein offshore wind farm developers would not be responsible for the (offshore) grid connection.
In January, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) said it was conducting consultation with the offshore wind market on the design of the state’s sixth solicitation which could be launched in the first quarter of 2026.
The consultation primarily concerns the possibility of procuring offshore wind farms only, with the grid connections implemented through the New York City PPTN Transmission Project.
The Beacon Wind lease area, previously owned jointly by Equinor and BP, is located offshore Massachusetts and is being developed in two phases, both planned to feed electricity into the New York grid.
This first phase, the 1,230 MW Beacon Wind 1, is currently under development and already has a 25-year offtake agreement in place with NYSERDA. The 1,200 MW Beacon Wind 2 will be developed at a later date.
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) started the permitting process for the Beacon Wind projects’ Construction and Operation Plan (COP) in June 2023. In May 2024, BOEM issued a final environmental assessment (EA) and is yet to issue the final approval of the COP for the lease area.