New York’s Project First in US to Facilitate Fossil Fuel-to-Offshore Wind Workforce Transition

July 5, 2023, by Adrijana Buljan

The joint venture between TotalEnergies and Rise Light & Power, which is developing the 1.4 GW Attentive Energy One offshore wind project in New York, has signed a labour agreement that will see the staff at the Ravenswood Generating Station becoming the first in the country to transition from work in fossil fuel power generation to operating offshore wind equipment.

Attentive Energy One (AE1) signed the deal with Utility Workers Union of America Local 1-2 (UWUA Local 1-2), which represents the workforce at the Ravenswood Generating Station, with the agreement outlining a plan for preparing the members of Local 1-2 for the future in clean energy at the Ravenswood facility.

If AE1 is awarded a state contract, for which the joint venture submitted a proposal in New York’s third offshore wind solicitation in January, it will launch a programme in coordination with UWUA Local 1-2 that will ensure Ravenswood staff transitions smoothly through retraining and other transition benefits. The transition will enable the staff to work on new renewable energy equipment as well as an operations and maintenance (O&M) facility that the joint venture plans to establish at the Ravenswood Generating Station.

“Attentive Energy One is the model for how to advance a transformational clean energy project that incorporates the community and embraces the principles of environmental justice and a just transition”, said Clint Plummer, Chief Executive Officer of Rise Light & Power, operators of the Ravenswood Generating Station and a partner in Attentive Energy One. “A just transition for our energy workforce tells them that they are valued and are the best candidates to operate the generation and transmission infrastructure necessary to power our sustainable future”.

The developers said that, in addition to the workforce transition at Ravenswood, AE1 will support training opportunities for workers statewide by partnering with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and their industry partner the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) to open a Global Wind Organization (GWO) Training Center. This centre will provide broad labour union training related to GWO-approved courses and educational credits through an agreement with Empire State College, according to AE1.

Furthermore, the joint venture is also collaborating with the National Offshore Wind Training Center (NOWTC), which will offer GWO training on Long Island.

In March, AE1 announced plans for two offshore wind port facilities in New York Harbor, including the Arthur Kill Terminal (AKT) on Staten Island where the developers plan to establish a marshalling site and the O&M facility at the Rise-owned Ravenswood Generating Station in Queens.

The O&M Hub will repurpose the site’s existing waterfront and will comprise control rooms, training facilities, and warehousing for the AE1 project.

The Ravenswood site will see an upgrade of nearly 1,000 feet (approx. 305 metres) of existing quayside to allow for docking, vessel operations, and crew transfer activities for offshore wind operations.

Around the same time, Attentive Energy One said that if its proposal to build the offshore wind farm off New York would is approved, the project would result in USD 25.6 billion in benefits to New York State, with one of the cornerstones of its plans being a flagship manufacturing agreement with General Electric (GE), located at the Port of Coeymans.

Attentive Energy LLC secured its lease site in the record-breaking New York Bight seabed lease auction, held last year.

At the time, Attentive Energy was a joint venture company owned by TotalEnergies and EnBW. However, EnBW later decided to exit the US offshore wind market, with TotalEnergies acquiring the German company’s US entity and its assets.

In January of this year, Rise Light & Power announced that it has secured an ownership stake in an offshore wind project and submitted a proposal in New York State’s offshore wind solicitation for which the company said will be the nation’s first renewable repowering of a major fossil-fuel plant with offshore wind power.