The Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) has approved contracts under which Central Vermont Public Service Corporation (CVPS) and Green Mountain Power (GMP) will buy power from the proposed 99MW Granite Reliable Wind project in Coos County, New Hampshire.
CVPS will purchase 30.3% of the output and GMP will purchase 25% of the output of the wind project for 20 years starting April 1, 2012. The project is expected to fulfill about 4% of each utility’s annual energy needs.
The contracts resulted from a request for proposals (RFP). The companies also made smaller purchases as a result of the RFP, but only the Granite Reliable project required PSB review.
Mary Powell, president of GMP, said: “This purchase helps us achieve our energy vision that we launched two years ago of a power supply for our customers that is low cost, low carbon and reliable.”
Bob Young, president of CVPS, said: “We remain committed to soundly sited wind energy and believe it can play an important role in Vermont’s energy future.”
The utilities said that among the factors that they considered in choosing the Granite Reliable purchase are price, price volatility, fuel diversity, environmental attributes, public preferences voiced during the state’s public outreach process and reliability.