Contractor sued by MWRA for $4.3m over turbine damage
Company denies all allegations
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has filed a $4.3 million lawsuit against a Wilmington contractor in connection with a 100-foot wind turbine that was badly damaged last May at the agency’s Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, according to legal filings.
The suit was filed Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court against Baldwin Energy, records show.
“Because of Baldwin’s breaches, negligence, and failure to perform its work in a good and workmanlike manner, one of the Deer Island wind turbine generators suffered a catastrophic failure and requires replacement,” the MWRA wrote in a 10-page civil complaint.
The agency, which provides water and sewer services to 3.1 million people in Eastern Massachusetts, said in the complaint that Baldwin had also caused “lost electricity generation” due to the damage.
Baldwin entered into a maintenance and repair contract with the MWRA in March 2022, according to the suit.
The next month, it placed the Deer Island turbine in emergency stop mode to investigate the cause of a bearing failure and develop a plan to repair it, but workers failed to install the fitting necessary for turbines in standstill mode for more than two days, the complaint said.
Baldwin did not inspect or perform any repair work on the turbine before May 29, 2022, when it “suffered a catastrophic failure where the turbine’s blades and rotor assembly spun out of control, and portions of the blades separated from the turbine,” according to the complaint.
In a statement released by its lawyer, Baldwin said the MWRA was to blame for the failure.
The company, which has a contract to maintain two MWRA turbines on Deer Island and a third in Charlestown, said its workers “diagnosed a main bearing failure” on the turbine in question on April 11 and submitted a repair plan to the agency the next morning.
“The MWRA then directed Baldwin not to enter the turbine and indicated that the MWRA was going to conduct an investigation,” the company said. “For the next 13 months, Baldwin was not permitted to enter into nor provide services on this turbine. Baldwin continued to maintain the other turbines per its contract, but the MWRA directive to leave [the turbine] alone was
‘Baldwin was not aware of the MWRA lawsuit . . . and disputes any allegation of improper work.’ BALDWIN ENERGY STATEMENT
not retracted or modified until May 2023, when Baldwin was called to respond to” the failure.
The MWRA said in its civil complaint that at the time of the incident “strong winds” apparently damaged the braking mechanism and caused the turbine to free spin.
“The wind was only able to cause uncontrolled rotation of the rotor because Baldwin placed [the turbine] in Emergency Stop mode and did not install the transport fitting” as instructed by an operations manual, the complaint said.
It said the MWRA continues to lose “the value of electricity generated by” the turbine.
But Baldwin said the company dealt “successfully” with the emergency in May.
“The MWRA has never provided Baldwin with any information as to investigative work conducted between April 2022 and May 2023, nor any maintenance or inspections performed during that period,” the company said. “Baldwin was not aware of the MWRA lawsuit until being contacted by the media, and disputes any allegation of improper work based in part on the facts noted here. Baldwin believes the MWRA maintenance records and logs will support Baldwin’s position.”