by Shane Henson — September 24, 2012—Energy users and managers throughout central and eastern Maine who would like to use clean energy sources can soon benefit from a historic step facilitated by their electricity transmission and delivery company, Bangor Hydro Electric Company, which built the interconnection to its power grid allowing the first ocean energy to reach an electric grid in the United States.
Bangor Hydro Electric Company verified on September 13 that electricity is being delivered to its power grid from Ocean Renewable Power Company’s (ORPC’s) Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Project. This is the first power from any ocean energy project including offshore wind, wave and tidal, to be delivered to an electric utility grid in the United States. Scoring another first, it is the only ocean energy project, other than one using a dam, that delivers power to a utility grid anywhere in North, Central or South America.
In early 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a pilot project license to ORPC for the Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Project. In April, the Maine Public Utilities Commission approved a 20-year power purchase agreement for ORPC’s Maine Tidal Energy Project (which includes the Cobscook Bay Project) with Central Maine Power, Bangor Hydro Electric and Maine Public Service. In July, ORPC dedicated the first TidGen turbine generator unit. In late summer, ORPC completed installation of the first TidGen Power System at the Cobscook Bay project site, including the on-shore station on Seward Neck, Lubec.
This first TidGen device has a peak output of 180 kilowatts and will generate enough electricity annually to power 25 to 30 homes, says ORPC. Two additional TidGen devices will be installed at ORPC’s Cobscook Bay Project site in the fall of 2013 and, together, the three-device power system is expected to generate enough energy to power 75 to 100 homes.
