Maine route chosen as backup for Hydro-Québec project

Hydro- Québec will have an opportunity to save its $10-billion export contract with Massachusetts, even if the state decides not to stick with the Northern Pass transmission line, which has failed to secure approval in New Hampshire.

The New England Clean Energy Connect proposal, which would be built through a partnership with Central Maine Power, a subsidiary of Avangrid, was selected as an alternative option on Friday by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Conditional negotiations around the New England Clean Energy Connect plan will start in parallel with the continuing discussions between Massachusetts and the promoters of Northern Pass, Hydro- Québec and its U.S. partner Eversource.

However, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs has set a deadline of March 27 for the Northern Pass.

The cost of New England Clean Energy Connect is estimated at US$950 million, and that doesn’t include the cost of building a transmission line in Quebec to the border with Maine. The project would be scheduled to be in service by 2022.

The 233-kilometre route, in the U.S., would cross southern New Hampshire to connect with Massachusetts. There are no plans yet in Quebec.

“We have always been confident, but in light of the events of the past few weeks, this has demonstrated that there can be certain risks with large infrastructure projects,” said Hydro-Québec spokesperson Lynn St-Laurent.

TWO PLANS

Since the Northern Pass was selected at the end of January, it’s been unclear which project was Massachusetts’s second choice among the 46 proposals that were received.

According to St-Laurent, like Northern Pass, New England Clean Energy Connect stood out because it offered “clean energy” and “power security.”

The crown corporation plans to launch the pre-project phase, which includes public consultations, in the spring, in order to determine the route and the cost of constructing the Quebec portion of the transmission line.

Hydro- Québec had been betting on the Northern Pass, which has an estimated cost of $680 million for the Quebec portion and US$1.6 billion for the portion south of the border, to deliver 9.45 terawatt hours of electricity to Massachusetts a year for 20 years starting in 2020.

In the U.S., the transmission line, which would travel through the White Mountains region, has already obtained permits from the Department of Energy and the U.S. Forest Service. However, it also requires a green light from the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee, which refused to approve it.

Eversource has already said it plans to appeal the decision, a process that could take several months.

The American company said in a statement that it has already spent $250 million on the Northern Pass and will attempt to convince the SEC to change its mind.

“We have a strong legal argument for a reconsideration by the SEC,” it said.

“While our negotiations with the (Massachusetts electric distribution companies continue), we will also focus on earning reconsideration by the SEC.”

However, one New Hampshire group that opposes the project says that’s unlikely.

Winning over the SEC, which voted unanimously against the proposal, would require such significant changes to the plan that Eversource would likely have to file an entirely new application, said Jack Savage, the vice-president of communications the New Hampshire Forest Society.

The third connection proposed by Hydro-Québec last year, the New England Clean Power Link, would travel along the bottom of Lake Champlain to connect with Vermont.

That project has already obtained all the necessary approvals in the United States but its exact path through Quebec is not yet known.

The Canadian Press

With files from the Montreal Gazette