Block Island Wind Farm Linked to Land, Turbine Installation Upcoming

The submarine cable connecting the first American offshore wind farm to Block Island has been installed. National Grid has completed the landing of a subsea cable between the Rhode Island mainland and Block Island, with inter-array cabling scheduled to be done this month. 

National Grid’s sea2shore cable will bring power generated by Deepwater Wind’s five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm to the mainland power grid. The subsea cable was installed between Scarborough State Beach in Narragansett, Rhode Island, and Crescent Beach on Block Island.

The cable will ultimately be connected to a new National Grid substation being constructed on the island and to an existing substation in Wakefield, RI on the mainland. The same cable will also interconnect the privately owned Block Island Power Company (BIPCo) to the mainland.

“We still have several months of construction work and testing to complete before the system can be energized,” said Rudy Wynter, president and COO of National Grid’s FERC regulated businesses.

“We’re continuing to work closely with Deepwater Wind, BIPCo, the towns of New Shoreham, Narragansett, South Kingstown as well as state, local and federal permitting agencies to complete the project this fall,” Wynter said.

Meanwhile, offshore construction activities are beginning to ramp up with the arrival of the 240-foot long turbine blades at Deepwater Wind and GE’s assembly facility at Port of Providence. Last week, local stevedores began offloading the 15 blades at the Providence port facility.

The blades, and the tower sections already assembled there, are scheduled to travel by boat to the Block Island Wind Farm site in the beginning of August.