🔒Eversource takes $164M charge tied to Revolution Wind stop-work orders

Eversource Energy absorbed a $164 million after-tax charge in the second quarter stemming from the Trump administration’s two attempts to halt construction of the Revolution Wind offshore wind farm, executives said Friday, even as they expressed confidence the project will be fully in service by the end of the year. The Hartford-based utility reported a second-quarter profit of $53.7 million, or 14 cents per diluted share, down from $352.7 million a year earlier, as one-time charges tied to offshore wind and the June 30 sale of Aquarion Water Co. weighed on results, according to its earnings report released Thursday. Revenue rose to $2.9 billion, from $2.8 billion in the second quarter of 2025. The offshore wind charge reflects an increase in Eversource’s contingent liability for expected future payments to Global Infrastructure Partners, which bought the Revolution Wind and South Fork Wind projects from Eversource in September 2024. Under the sale agreement, Eversource remains on the hook for certain cost adjustments until construction is finished. Eversource exited the offshore wind business with that sale, refocusing on its regulated electric and natural gas operations, but it reevaluates the liability each quarter as construction costs change. During Friday’s earnings call, Chairman, President and CEO Joe Nolan said the latest increase was driven by the two federal stop-work orders that sidelined the roughly $6 billion project, first for about a month starting in August 2025 and again from late December until a federal judge lifted the second order in January. “The two stop-work orders led us to lose that vessel, and that vessel needed to get remobilized in order to finish the job,” Nolan said, referring to a specialized turbine installation vessel working on the project. According to VesselFinder.com, two installation vessels, Wind Scylla and Eco Edison, recently arrived at the Revolution Wind site. Nolan said he sees little remaining risk in the project, which Danish developer Ørsted and GIP’s Skyborn Renewables are building off the Rhode Island coast. The work is 97% complete, Nolan said, with every remaining component in hand and straightforward installation remaining. Revolution Wind is already delivering more than 300 megawatts to the ISO New England grid and is ramping up toward its full 704-megawatt capacity, he said. The project began feeding power onto the regional grid in March. “I don’t see any other types of risks that worry me or are going to keep me up at night,” Nolan said. “Obviously, we couldn’t control the shutdowns, but we just wanted to capture that and make sure that we are up front on all the charges.” Ørsted has said the project remains on track to reach its commercial operation date later this year, Nolan noted. Executives also defended the company’s pending rate case, filed with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority on July 14. The request, Eversource’s first since 2017, seeks to close a $451 million revenue deficiency and would raise total customer bills by about 11%. Chief Financial Officer John Moreira said only 11% of the revenue deficiency reflects increased operations and maintenance expenses since the last rate case, with the remainder tied to capital investments, storm resiliency and restoration costs, depreciation and taxes. Nolan said those costs are unavoidable, and that letting the grid deteriorate would ultimately cost customers more. “Nothing is optional. It’s about keeping the lights on and getting fair cost recovery,” Nolan said. “Not investing in the system, as you know, would be far more expensive.” Nolan pointed to reliability gains since 2017, when Eversource began investing more than $4 billion in its Connecticut distribution system serving 1.3 million customers in 157 cities and towns. The average customer now experiences one outage roughly every two years, a 15% improvement, and nearly half of all power interruptions in 2025 were restored remotely within minutes, the company said. Asked whether PURA, which trimmed Eversource’s storm cost recovery request earlier this week and denied its carrying charges, would give the rate request a fair shake in an election year, Nolan said he was encouraged by the regulator’s recent track record. “All five of them are on the bench. All five of them are engaged. All five of them are asking very, very good questions,” Nolan said of PURA’s commissioners. “We feel very good that we will get a fair hearing in Connecticut.”