The Block Island Wind Farm is producing power commercially, the first offshore wind farm to deliver energy to the American power grid, project developer Deepwater Wind announced Monday.

The wind farm has completed its commissioning and testing phases and begun commercial operations, delivering electricity into the New England region’s grid on a regular basis, the company said in a news release. The energy produced from the wind farm is linked to the New England grid by National Grid’s new sea2shore submarine transmission cable system, the company said.

“Rhode Island is proud to be home to the nation’s first offshore wind farm — and I'm proud to be the only governor in America who can say we have steel in the water and blades spinning over the ocean,” Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said. “As the Ocean State, we’re motivated by our shared belief that we need to produce and consume cleaner, more sustainable energy and leave our kids a healthier planet — but also by this tremendous economic opportunity. With this project, we’ve put hundreds of our local workers to work at sea and at our world-class ports and are growing this innovative industry. I applaud Deepwater Wind for leading the way.”

The wind far is expected to supply about 30 megawatts of electricity, more than enough to meet Block Island's entire current demand of 3 to 4 megawatts, National Grid said in a separate news release. The excess will be redirected to mainland Rhode Island via the submarine cable running between Block Island and the town of Narragansett. National Grid oversaw construction of the connection infrastructure needed to connect the wind farm to the electrical system. The company will continue to own and maintain the infastructure, which includes about 20 miles of undersea cable, five miles of underground cable, and two substations, on on Block Island and one in Narragansett.

Rhode Island U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and co-sponsor of the Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act, said the wind farm will serve as a model for more offshore wind projects that generate good-paying jobs along with electricity. The state’s other senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, called it a “historic milestone” to reduce the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels. The two other members of the state’s congressional delegation, Rep. Jim Langevin and Rep. David Cicilline, also applauded the project.

Technicians from GE Renewable Energy, which supplied the project’s five offshore wind turbines, put the wind farm through its paces during the four-month testing period, the company said. The project’s crew transfer vessel, the Rhode Island-built Atlantic Pioneer, transported technicians to the wind farm around the clock.

Th installation of the wind farm took place over two years, and was completed on time and within budget, the company said. More than 300 local workers helped develop, build and commission the  project. Deepwater Wind utilized four separate Rhode Island port facilities — ProvPort, Quonset Point, Galilee and Block Island — to complete the wind farm’s staging, construction and commissioning over the last two years.

“We’ve made history here in the Ocean State, but our work is far from over,” said Jeffrey Grybowski, chief executive officer of Deepwater Wind. “We’re more confident than ever that this is just the start of a new U.S. renewable energy industry that will put thousands of Americans to work and power communities up and down the East Coast for decades to come.”