Vineyard Wind has filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts against GE Renewables, seeking to force the turbine manufacturer to stay on the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind project and carry out remaining work.

The complaint, lodged in state court, centres on a roughly $1.3bn turbine supply and service agreement covering the design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of 62 GE Vernova 13MW turbines about 24 km south of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The 806MW project reached the end of construction in March and is now operating at partial capacity, with full operations expected in the coming months.

Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, says GE Renewables notified it that it would terminate maintenance and service contracts at the end of April over unpaid bills.

GE Vernova, GE Renewables’ parent, said Vineyard Wind owes about $300m for work already performed. The developer admits 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 is asking the court to declare GE’s termination notice invalid and to issue temporary and permanent injunctions barring the manufacturer from abandoning the project. The developer argues that GE Renewables remains liable for roughly $545m in damages and that the company is the only viable supplier capable of completing the remaining work.

“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.

Craig Gilvarg, Vineyard Wind spokesman, said the legal action is aimed at ensuring GE Renewables fulfils its obligations “and to the people of Massachusetts and New England who are relying on the significant power and economic benefits this project is already providing.”

The project is expected to deliver about $3.7bn in savings to electric customers over its lifetime. It is set to provide clean electricity to about 400,000 homes.

GE Vernova says it is acting within its contractual rights and has fulfilled its obligations, including completing the turbine installation. The company says it will “vigorously defend its position through the appropriate legal process.”

A hearing on Vineyard Wind’s request for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Thursday, April 16.