The utilities will pay a fixed rate of 5.3 cents per kilowatt hour under a 20-year contract expected to save consumers more than $30 million compared with energy-price projections over the life of the contract.

PROVIDENCE — Under a first-of-its-kind agreement, all of Rhode Island’s energy consumers are set to share in the power output from a large solar project to be built at a former industrial site in Connecticut.

The Office of Energy Resources announced Wednesday that all three of Rhode Island’s electric utilities — National Grid, which dominates the state’s energy markets, as well as the much smaller Pascoag Utility District and Block Island Utility District — have agreed to buy power from the 50-megawatt solar array that D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments is developing at a gravel mine near Hartford.

It was the only project selected by National Grid last year for negotiations after the state issued a request for proposals for up to 400 megawatts of additional renewable energy.

National Grid has signed long-term power purchase contracts with other renewable-energy developers, most notably with Orsted, which owns the 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm and is planning a 400-megawatt follow-up called the Revolution Wind Farm. But until now it had never joined up with the state’s two other electric distributors to buy renewable energy.

D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments is part of the D.E. Shaw Group, a global investment firm based in New York that was the major financial backer of the Block Island Wind Farm, the first offshore wind farm in the nation.

The utilities will pay a fixed rate of 5.3 cents per kilowatt hour for power and environmental benefits from the solar project under the 20-year contract that requires approval from the state Public Utilities Commission. It is expected to save consumers more than $30 million when compared with projections for energy prices over the life of the contract, according to the state energy office.

The project would provide enough power for more than 18,500 homes in Rhode Island. As part of the agreement, D.E. Shaw has also agreed to provide $300,000 to the state to support clean energy workforce development.

The announcement comes less than three weeks after Gov. Gina Raimondo signed an executive order that aims to have all of Rhode Island's electricity flowing from renewable sources by the end of the decade.

“This latest addition to the state’s clean energy portfolio will provide cost-effective, carbon-free energy that will save consumers money and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Acting State Energy Commissioner Nicholas Ucci said in a statement.

— akuffner@providencejournal.com

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