Offshore wind farm could lower congestion costs

With the only power plant in the county serving the residents of Berlin, and only part-time at that, transmitting electricity to customers on the lower shore can get costly, but quantifying exactly how much could be saved by employing other methods is not likely to be a line item on anyone’s bill anytime soon.

These costs of transmission are already rolled into the kilowatt-hour charges customers see delineated on electric bills.

Paul Rich of U.S. Wind, the company in the process of installing an offshore wind farm near Ocean City, described these costs as a “hidden tax” on lower shore residents. He estimated the costs at $4.25 per bill per individual customer on the lower shore.

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