Offshore wind farm could be boon to two Groton businesses

One of the four offshore companies vying to be next in line to add offshore wind power to the state’s electrical grid is promising more work for at least two eastern Connecticut companies.

Vineyard Offshore said on Tuesday that it has a memorandum of understanding for work with Groton-based companies ThayerMahan and Survival Systems USA, contingent on the state choosing Vineyard Offshore from the four companies that have proposed offshore wind projects.

Both companies have performed work for Vineyard Offshore, the company that developed Vineyard Wind — a 806-megawatt, 62-turbine wind farm under construction about 15 miles off Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Vineyard Wind 1 lays claim to being the first operational commercial scale offshore wing farm in the country.

ThayerMayhan provided an acoustic monitoring system early on in the project for seabed surveys and acoustic mitigation and monitoring. Later, the company used bubble curtain technology to dampen the sound during installation of offshore wind turbine foundations.

“Vineyard Wind 1 gave us a chance to enter the offshore wind industry and establish our Big Bubble Curtain business in New England. We are excited about continuing our partnership with Vineyard Offshore and Vineyard Wind 2,” Richard Hine, president of ThayerMayhan, said in a statement.

Vineyard Offshore also plans a continued partnership and has entered a memorandum of understanding with Groton-based Survival Systems, a company that is training people in the offshore wind industry in water safety and survival. In a statement released on Tuesday, Vineyard Offshore said the agreement with Survival Systems will “support the build-out of training facility infrastructure, equipment procurement, certifications, workforce training, and capacity.”

Since 2020, Survival Systems USA has trained more than 1,500 people working for members of the Global Wind Organization, a nonprofit association of wind turbine manufacturers and renewable energy developers. Last month, the company celebrated its 25th anniversary in Groton and held a ceremonial ribbon cutting for a new building housing a 33-foot training tower.

Keith Wille, program manager for Survival Systems USA, said his company has worked with numerous offshore wind companies — teaching everything from how to survive a helicopter crash to how to safely transfer workers from a boat to an offshore wind turbine.

“We look forward to continuing our work with Vineyard Offshore on this new project. Offshore wind has become an important part of our business and Vineyard Offshore has become a great partner,” Survival Systems President and CEO Maria Hanna said in a statement.

Work for both of the Groton companies is contingent on Vineyard Offshore being selected to construct the proposed 1,200-megawatt Vineyard Wind 2 project in the federal lease area 29 miles south of Nantucket, Mass. The company promises construction work in Salem, Mass., secondary manufacturing in Providence, operations and maintenance in New Bedford, Mass., and electricity delivered to the grid in Montville via New London.

Vineyard Wind 1 is jointly owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of Avangrid, Inc. Vineyard Wind 2 is jointly owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Iberdrola, through a subsidiary of Avangrid Renewables.

Vineyard Offshore was one of the four companies that put forward bids in response to a multi-state solicitation from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Connecticut is seeking up to 2,000 megawatts of new offshore wind, which would be in addition to the 304 megawatts it is buying from Ørsted and Eversource’s Revolution Wind project, which is now under construction and will supply power to Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Along with Vineyard Offshore, Ørsted, SouthCoast Wind and Avangrid have submitted bids under the memorandum of understanding between Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has said it expects to make an announcement in the third-quarter of this year whether any projects had been accepted to move forward with power purchase agreement negotiations.

g.smith@theday.com