RI Energy’s President Talks Future of Offshore Wind, Tech Problems in Storm Response and More
RI Energy’s President Talks Future of Offshore Wind, Tech Problems in Storm Response and More
More than 60,000 RI Energy customers lost power starting Thursday night, and Cornett says that power was restored to nearly all of the customers impacted on Saturday.
But, he is the first to admit the failure of the outage map — the tool for customers to report and track their outage.
“Unacceptable. I've used that word many times. I know the governor used it, too. I've agreed with him and I flatly apologize, fully apologize to our customers," said Cornett on GoLocal LIVE.
What Went Wrong
Cornett said, “Essentially, that at the time we started getting the calls in, there was a problem with the OMS [Outage Management System], which is our outage management system, properly routing those outage calls, leading to a number of duplicate entries in the system and misdirected database entries. And the outage map itself pulls from that database. So it was basically pulling from inaccurate information," he said.
He said the RI Energy team is focused on working with the vendor to ensure that the problems do not repeat themselves.
For 40 minutes on GoLocal LIVE on Wednesday, Cornett answered questions from GoLocal readers and viewers.
More than 100 questions were submitted.
Cornett also discussed the future of Rhode Island's offshore wind industry, as President Trump's "Big Beautiful Budget Bill" puts its future in question.
GoLocal CEL Josh Fenton asked, "Will we see Orsted’s major offshore wind projects go forward?"
“I think it's highly questionable that we'll see both of them go forward. The one that's poised to go, I think it, you know, it's all but done at this point. There's, you know, some minor work that they're continuing to do, but it's the Revolution Wind project, which is nearing completion,” said Cornett.
“The other one that specifically referenced the extension, you know, I think there's so much uncertainty," said Cornett. "[President Trump] has, you know, issued some additional guidance over the last day or two that made it, you know, clear he intends to really try to dry up that industry. So, we're continuing to work with the state as much as we possibly can and with Massachusetts, who is a partner in that ongoing project, but it's really questionable at this point."
Earlier in the week, Meaghan Wims, a spokesperson of Orsted, told GoLocal in an email, "Revolution Wind (704 megawatts) remains on track for completion in 2026, and Sunrise Wind (925 megawatts; New York project) in 2027."
In August of 2024, Orsted announced, “The expanded footprint and new hires are part of Orsted’s $1.5 billion continuing investment in Rhode Island. Orsted expects to more than double its Rhode Island headcount in the years ahead.”
The State of Rhode Island has spent more than $100 million on infrastructure improvements to subsidize the industry. The industry was slated to create hundreds of union jobs in Rhode Island. The Trump energy strategy has ended those aspirations.
On other issues:
- Cornett said RI Energy is expanding the payment system for customers so it will accept more forms of payment — PayPal, Venmo, and other digital forms of payment.
- He said his team is working to find additional savings to try to minimize winter season rate hikes.
- On the issue of tree maintenance, Cornett discussed the balance between environmental issues and line protection.
- Regarding burying powerlines, Cornet talked about the cost and that when there is an issue with powerlines that are buried, repair is costly and generally takes far longer.