Vineyard Wind went to Suffolk Superior Court Thursday to try to stop turbine supplier GE Renewables from walking away from the project in less than two weeks.
The companies are embroiled in a dispute stemming from a catastrophic blade failure at the wind farm in 2024 and the discovery of defective blades.
Vineyard Wind has withheld about $300 million in payments to GE Renewables, a subsidiary of GE Vernova, to offset unpaid damages from the incident.
An engineer determined that GE owed Vineyard Wind about $853 million. Vineyard Wind maintains that even with the $300 million in withheld funds, GE still owes nearly $550 million.
GE contends that Vineyard Wind can’t withhold payment because the damages are disputed.
In court, Judge Peter Krupp said GE could have taken the issue to arbitration.
“You can discuss and discuss and discuss until you're blue in the face,” he told attorneys for GE. “At some point, you got to take some sort of action, right? And you took — you chose to take the action to terminate the contract rather than to go to arbitration.”
GE was expected to finish the startup of the wind farm’s 62 turbines and bring them up to their full generating capacity. Vineyard Wind says in court documents that not a single turbine yet meets the contractual requirements for Vineyard Wind to take over the turbines.
GE notified Vineyard Wind in February that it planned to terminate its two contracts — one for supplying turbines and one for service and maintenance — on April 28.
Vineyard Wind is seeking an injunction to compel GE to stay on the project.
In court, Vineyard Wind attorney Frances Bivens told the judge that GE has not finished essential work.
“The turbines that are out in the field right now are not commercially operational,” she said. “They're not making power at commercial rates, they're not reliable to commercial standards, and they need to be in order for this project to be viable.”
Vineyard Wind contends that the wind farm may never generate full power, and could even go dormant, if GE leaves before the job is done. Vineyard Wind argues that no other company will have enough knowledge of GE’s proprietary technology or be able to perform the work within the necessary timeframe.
For its part, GE says it uses third-party contractors for a substantial portion of the work, and Vineyard Wind could use those same contractors. GE also says the company is willing to provide information and software necessary for others to do the work.
David Lender, an attorney for GE Renewables, said in court that Vineyard Wind has not taken action to resolve the disagreement about the amount of the damages.
“They know that we've agreed that disputes like this are all going to get resolved in arbitration. They haven't commenced any arbitration — nothing,” he said.
Judge Krupp did not make an immediate ruling on the request from Vineyard Wind for a temporary injunction to keep GE working while the rest of the lawsuit plays out.
The judge scheduled a hearing for May 1 on whether the damages must go to arbitration.
