The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has finalized contracts with Equinor Wind US LLC for its 816-megawatt offshore Empire Wind Project and Sunrise Wind LLC (a joint venture of Ørsted A/S and Eversource Energy) for its 880 megawatt offshore Sunrise Wind Project

The Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind projects have an average all-in development cost of $83.36 per megawatt hour (2018 dollars) with an expected average OREC (offshore wind REC) cost of $25.14 per megawatt-hour.

As previously reported, ESCOs and other LSEs will be assigned the OREC obligation

NYSERDA will purchase ORECs from contracted Phase 1 offshore wind developers and resell them to the LSEs to meet their obligations under the Offshore Wind Standard. The portion of ORECs purchased by each LSE will be proportional to the amount of electricity provided by the LSE in a year -- in regulatory terms, OREC obligations will be proportional to load served in a given compliance year.

NYSERDA and all LSEs will complete OREC agreements for the first phase of offshore wind energy development before the offshore wind projects begin to generate ORECs. While these agreements with the LSEs were originally called for in the PSC's Offshore Wind Order by March 31, 2019, NYSERDA has requested and been granted extensions to the due date given they will come into play after commissioning of the awarded projects (approximately 2024).