A Massachusetts judge has issued a preliminary injunction ordering GE Vernova to remain engaged on the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm, pointing out the legal limits on contractor exits once major projects reach advanced operational stages.

Suffolk County superior court judge Peter Krupp barred GE Renewables US, a GE Vernova unit, from terminating its $1.3bn turbine supply and maintenance contract at the 806MW Vineyard Wind project off Martha’s Vineyard after the developer refused to pay more than $300m the turbine supplier claims it is owed. The injunction prevents GE from stopping work as of the April 28 termination date GE had set.

“The project is at a critical phase, and the loss of Vineyard Wind’s principal contractor would set the project back immeasurably and threaten Vineyard Wind’s financing,” Krupp wrote in his ruling.

Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Iberdrola and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, filed the lawsuit after GE threatened to walk away from the project, arguing that forcing the developer to accept a new turbine supplier would be extremely damaging.

The project, located about 24 km south of Nantucket, has completed turbine installation and is now in a testing and optimisation phase, with full commercial operations expected in the coming months.

The developer has already admitted to withholding approximately $308m, arguing it is entitled to offset those payments against GE’s liabilities arising from a July 2024 turbine blade failure.

In that incident, a blade broke apart offshore, and fragments washed onto Nantucket beaches during peak tourist season. GE Vernova has said the root cause was insufficient bonding at its Canadian factory and that there was no design flaw.

The project removed and replaced 68 installed blades with new units supplied from a facility in France. Vineyard Wind says the incident and resulting remediation work set the project back by nearly two years, adding more than a full year of lost revenue under power purchase agreements and substantial extra construction, overhead, and financing costs. Vineyard Wind alleged that the loss was roughly $545m.

“Without GE Renewables’ maintenance and remediation services, it is highly unlikely that the project would be able to sustain commercially viable levels of operation and production through the critical early years of the project’s operational phase,” Vineyard Wind stated.

Krupp rejected the claim that Vineyard Wind could simply hire another contractor to complete and service the 62 proprietary turbines.

“The idea that Vineyard Wind could go out and hire one or more contractors to finish, troubleshoot, and modify GE Renewables’ proprietary design without GE Renewables’ specialised knowledge is fanciful,” he wrote.

The 806MW project is expected to save customers about $3.7bn over its lifetime while supplying clean electricity to around 400,000 homes.

GE Vernova said it will remain engaged in supporting the project’s safe operation while evaluating its next legal steps, maintaining that it has acted within its contractual rights and completed its turbine installation obligations. Full resolution of the underlying dispute will now proceed through the ongoing litigation process.