By Nate Raymond

BOSTON, April 16 (Reuters) - A Massachusetts judge on Thursday appeared open to temporarily blocking GE Vernova GEV.N from abandoning work on the largest offshore wind farm in New England after the developer of the $4.5 billion Vineyard Wind project refused to pay over $300 million the turbine supplier says it is owed.

Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Peter Krupp appeared skeptical during a hearing in Boston that lawyers for a GE Vernova unit were right that the company was entitled to terminate its contract with Vineyard Wind and cease work effective April 28.

Vineyard Wind has said that could jeopardize its renewable energy project at a critical stage. In January, the company convinced a federal judge to block President Donald Trump's administration from continuing to halt construction.

David Lender, a lawyer for GE Renewables US, said his client had already completed installation of all 62 wind turbine generators used for the 806-megawatt project off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, which began initial operations in February.

But he said the company was entitled to walk away and not service those turbines in the coming years after Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Spain's Iberdrola IBE.MC and Denmark's Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, refused to pay it more than $360 million it was owed under their $1.3 billion contract.

"If they pay us we will continue the work," said Lender, a lawyer at Weil, Gotshal & Manges. "It’s not like they don’t have the money."

But Krupp pointed to a provision of the contract that Vineyard Wind says entitles it to withhold money as a set off for claims it would have against GE Vernova. Those claims, Vineyard Wind says, arise from the failure of one of its offshore blades, which collapsed and fell into the waters off Nantucket in 2024.

"They say you owe them more than they owe you," he said. "For present purposes, that’s the state of the world.”

Frances Bivens, a lawyer for Vineyard Wind at Davis Polk & Wardwell, said the blade failure caused two years of delays as the defect that caused it turned out to be present in nearly every one of the 72 installed blades, leading to Vineyard Wind being forced to replace all of them.

"So the damages to Vineyard Wind are substantial," she said.

She urged Krupp to issue a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction preventing GE from ceasing work. Krupp did not immediately rule but said he was aware the case would need to be resolved on an expedited basis.

He scheduled a further hearing for May 1 to consider a bid by GE to force Vineyard Wind into an arbitration over the amounts owed and whether GE had a basis to terminate their contract, and Krupp suggested that if he denied that motion he would hold a speedy trial for a final ruling.

The case is Vineyard Wind 1 LLC vs. GE Renewables US LLC, Suffolk County Superior Court, Massachusetts, No. 2684CV01041.

For Vineyard Wind: Frances Bivens of Davis Polk & Wardwell

For GE: David Lender of Weil, Gotshal & Manges

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