Avangrid planed to build an 18-acre construction and maintenance staging area in Bridgeport's East End to support its 804-megawatt offshore wind project. Image courtesy of Avangrid

Energy company Avangrid has pulled the plug on its Park City Wind project, potentially imperiling a planned redevelopment of a shipping terminal in Bridgeport.

The wind farm was supposed to supply around 14 percent of Connecticut’s power needs with a grid of turbines south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Instead, the project appears to have fallen afoul of inflation-driven cost increases and a much tighter financing environment than when it was first proposed.

“One year ago, Avangrid was the first offshore wind developer in the United States to make public the unprecedented economic headwinds facing the industry including record inflation, supply chain disruptions, and sharp interest rate hikes, the aggregate impact of which rendered the Park City Wind project unfinanceable under its existing contracts,” Avangrid said in a statement. “Since that time, Avangrid has been transparent and collaborative, working diligently with state and federal officials and stakeholders to find solutions to the economic challenges facing Park City Wind as we continued to advance the permitting and development of the project. After exploring all potential solutions to the financial challenges facing the project, and engaging in good-faith and productive discussions with Connecticut state officials regarding these challenges, it is clear the best path forward for Park City Wind is in the termination of the Power Purchase Agreements and a rebid of the project.”

To support the project, Avangrid and its development partners had planned to revamp a commercial terminal in Bridgeport harbor.

Avangrid will now be forced to pay at least $16 million in termination fees, but it’s also expected to submit a new bid to build the wind farm, with higher promised power prices.