East Hartford jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney will see some upside from the coming construction of off-shore wind farms in the waters off Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Eversource Energy and Danish power giant Orsted on Monday selected HeliService International Inc. to help crews navigate the construction sites picked for three of their planned joint offshore wind projects — South Fork Wind, Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind. HeliService uses Leonardo AW169 helicopters, each powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW210-series engines.
The helicopters will be assembled at Leonardo’s facility in Philadelphia.
The agreement between Eversource, Orsted and HeliService is the first helicopter contract to support the construction and assembly of off-shore wind turbines in the United States, company officials said. The helicopters will be used to move workers to and from and around work sites, and can also hoist technicians to and from the top of wind turbines.
The partners did not say how much the contract is worth. It was also unclear exactly how many helicopters Leonardo expects to build for HeliService.
Eversource and Orsted, which partnered in 2019, have said their three New England projects will generate a combined 1.8 gigawatts of power, enough to run over 1 million homes.
Construction has already begun on the “Eco Edison,” a 260-foot vessel that will help crews operate and maintain the Eversource-Orsted wind turbines once they are up and running. The companies contracted with Edison Chouest Offshore, which is building the Eco Edison at a shipyard in Louisiana.