A Massachusetts judge on Friday blocked GE Vernova from abandoning work on the largest offshore wind farm in New England after developer Vineyard Wind refused to pay over $300 million the turbine supplier says it is owed for the $4.5 billion project.
Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Peter Krupp in Boston issued a preliminary injunction at developer Vineyard Wind's request preventing a GE Vernova unit from terminating their contract and ceasing work effective April 28.
"The project is at a critical phase and the loss of VW's principal contractor would set the project back immeasurably and threaten VW's financing," Krupp wrote.
Vineyard Wind's 806-megawatt project off the coast of Martha's Vineyard began initial operations in February, after it convinced a federal judge a month earlier to block President Donald Trump's administration from halting construction on it.
But days later, GE Renewables US, which designed, manufactured and installed the project's wind turbine generators, sent a notice threatening to terminate their $1.3 billion contract, saying it was owed $360 million. Vineyard Wind sued in response, arguing that GE's action wrongly threatened the commercial viability of the project.
Krupp agreed, saying Vineyard Wind under the contract was likely entitled to withhold money to offset amounts that an engineer concluded GE owed it after one of the turbine blades in 2024 collapsed and fell into the waters off Nantucket.
A spokesperson for Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Spain's Iberdrola and Denmark's Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, welcomed the judge's ruling, saying in a statement that it ensures it, "can continue delivering much needed energy to Massachusetts customers and the New England grid."
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based GE Vernova said it will, "remain engaged in supporting the safe operation of the project while we evaluate next steps."
Vineyard Wind contends it is owed the money as a result of that blade failure, which caused two years of delays after the manufacturing flaw that led to the failure was found to be widespread, requiring other blades to be replaced.
GE also argued Vineyard Wind did not need its expertise at this stage following the complete installation of all 62 wind turbines, saying remaining work such as servicing could be done by others.
Krupp said the idea that Vineyard Wind, "could go out and hire one or more contractors to finish and troubleshoot and modify GER's proprietary design without GER's specialised knowledge is fanciful."
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Franklin Paul, Nick Zieminski, Alexia Garamfalvi and David Gaffen)
