The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (“DOER”), the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General (“AGO ”), and electric distribution companies that operate in Massachusetts (“EDCs”) seek your input into the development of a request for proposals (“RFP”) for the competitive solicitation of bids to enter into cost-effective long-term contracts for Offshore Wind Energy generation pursuant to Section 83C of Chapter 169 of the Acts of 2008, as amended by Chapter 188 of the Acts of 2016, An Act to Promote Energy Diversity. This new law requires every EDC to jointly and competitively solicit bids for Offshore Wind Energy Generation equal to approximately 1,600 megawatts (MW) of aggregated nameplate capacity no later than June 30, 2027. It also requires DOER and the EDCs to jointly propose the timetable and method for solicitation of long-term contracts for review and approval by the Department of Public Utilities (“DPU”) prior to the issuance of the RFP.

With this comment period, the DOER, the EDCs, and the AGO hope to gather stakeholder input on a number of key areas. This document aims to focus stakeholder comments by providing questions that stakeholders should answer in their written comments.

All interested stakeholders should submit their written comments to marfp83C@gmail.com by 12:00PM on March 13, 2017. Comments will be reviewed and considered in the development of the RFP prior to its submission to the DPU for review and approval. All submissions will be posted to the EDCs’ clean energy procurements website, macleanenergy.com.