Aug 25 (Reuters) - The Trump administration's order to

halt work on a major wind farm under construction off the coast

of Rhode Island threatens grid reliability and jobs, energy and

labor officials said on Monday.

ISO New England, which operates the grid in six states, and

North America's Building Trades Unions made those criticisms in

statements after President Donald Trump's Interior Department on

Friday abruptly ordered work to stop on the Revolution Wind

project, which is 80% complete, citing unspecified national

security concerns.

Shares of project developer Orsted, which is based in

Denmark, sank to record lows on Monday.

"The ISO is expecting this project to come online and it is

included in our analyses of near-term and future grid

reliability," the grid operator for 15 million people said.

"Delaying the project will increase risks to reliability."

NABTU, an alliance of 14 building and construction unions,

said the order affected the jobs of 1,000 members.

"A 'stop-work order' is the fancy bureaucratic term, but it

means one thing: throwing skilled American workers off the job

after they've spent a decade training, building, and

delivering," NABTU President Sean McGarvey said in a statement.

Revolution Wind, which is off the coast of Rhode Island, was

scheduled to be completed next year and was expected to produce

enough electricity to power 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and

Connecticut.

The governors of those states, both Democrats, have also

criticized the Interior Department move, saying it jeopardized

jobs, energy affordability and electricity reliability.

An Interior Department spokesperson had no comment on the

stop-work order on Monday. The move was revealed in a letter to

Orsted late on Friday.

President Donald Trump, a Republican, has repeatedly

criticized wind energy as ugly, unreliable and expensive. His

administration has taken several steps to rein in wind

development.