Town Seeking Public Comment On Vineyard Wind's Incident Response Plan

The town is seeking public comment on a brief summary of Vineyard Wind’s debris/infrastructure failure incident response plan, released pursuant to an agreement the town reached with the offshore wind developer last December after a portion of a Vineyard Wind turbine blade collapsed into the ocean southwest of Nantucket.

The summary contains few details on how Vineyard Wind plans to train for and respond to potential infrastructure failures, but does explain how the wind farm plans to notify Nantucket should any damage occur.

The summary says that the town will be notified “within the first three hours following an incident,” with Vineyard Wind making three attempts to contact a “live representative” before leaving a message. Vineyard Wind will also “notify by text message” the town manager, Select Board chair and vice chair, police chief, fire chief, and harbormaster.

Additionally, Nantucket will be afforded the opportunity to appoint a representative to Vineyard Wind’s incident management team.

In the immediate aftermath of the blade collapse, Vineyard Wind’s response was heavily criticized by the public and town officials, with inaccurate models and insufficient procedures to contain debris leading to large amounts of waste washing up on Nantucket’s shores during the height of the island’s tourist season. Notably, town officials were unanimous that the wind farm’s representatives waited days before notifying them of the collapse, though Vineyard Wind officials disputed that account.

Beyond describing how Vineyard Wind will notify the town in the event of another incident, the summary is sparse on details, instead outlining the general scope and purpose of the plan.

For example, the summary says that the plan provides “containment and recovery methods with the immediate objective of collecting and containing debris as soon as possible after the incident and as close as possible to the site of the incident,” but does not explain what those methods are.

The town’s request for comment on the summary, which is dated to February of 2026, comes as Vineyard Wind is embroiled in a legal battle with turbine manufacturer GE Renewables over the energy giant’s effort to exit the wind farm entirely. A Boston judge granted a temporary injunction to block GE Renewables from backing out of their contract, but the two companies will still have to settle the matter, which rests on which corporation owes the other money after Vineyard Wind began to withhold payments to GE Renewables following the blade collapse.