Locked In for 20 Years: McKee Calls Revolution Wind a “Major Win” as Households Face a $31 Winter Default-Rate Jump

What happened

Ørsted said in its Nov. 5, 2026 third-quarter interim report that the 704-megawatt Revolution Wind farm reached commercial operations in October, UpriseRI reports (Adriana Vossari, Nov. 6). Rhode Island Energy holds a 20-year contract for 400 MW of the farm’s output; Connecticut utilities hold the remaining 304 MW, according to a Power Advisory assessment prepared for the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources.

Gov. Dan McKee, in a Nov. 5 statement, said the project had reached “100% operational status,” called it a “major win for Rhode Island’s workforce and our state’s energy future,” and said helping bring it to completion had been “a highlight of my administration,” including work he described as protecting it from federal interference. McKee lost the Sept. 9 Democratic primary to Helena Foulkes; the statement lands as an exit-lap claim about a long-term energy deal.

The Rhode Island contract sets a flat wholesale price of $98.425 per megawatt-hour, or about 9.8¢/kWh, that does not rise over the 20-year term, the Power Advisory report states. That is what the utility pays for the power—not the rate on a household bill. The same consultant assessment, prepared for the state, projects $374 million in energy and renewable-energy-certificate savings over the contract life plus $139 million from lower wholesale energy prices, and a residential bill reduction of $4 to $10 in the first full year. Those figures are consultant estimates for the state, not savings already realized. The Office of Energy Resources repeated the $374 million / $139 million projections in its own Nov. 5 statement.

Separately—and not as a claim that Revolution Wind alone caused this—Rhode Island Energy’s July 22 filing asked the Public Utilities Commission to approve a winter Last Resort Service default supply rate of 17.029¢/kWh starting Oct. 1, versus a summer rate of 11.092¢. The filing estimated the change would add $30.93 a month, or 21.4%, for a typical customer using 500 kWh, per UpriseRI.

The farm sits about 15 nautical miles southeast of Point Judith and has 65 turbines, per the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. It began delivering power in March; the final turbine went up in September. Home-count claims vary: BOEM’s project page says nearly 250,000 homes; the developer says the equivalent of more than 350,000 New England homes. Two prior federal stop-work orders (Aug. 22 and Dec. 22, 2025) were blocked in court; on Oct. 9 Interior asked the court to remand the 2023 construction-and-operations-plan approval—still pending as of Nov. 5, per UpriseRI. Green Oceans president Michael Lombardi criticized the project as harming fishermen and the environment.