Hudson River seen as path around pipeline opposers

Two power companies try to ride momentum of green energy push

It’s starting to look like the energy highway that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has spoken of may run under the Hudson River.

Prompted by new incentives and the state’s push for a carbon-free economy, a second transmission line company says it wants to run a high-capacity power line under the river to connect with New York City.

Rise Light & Power’s proposed Catskills Renewable Connector would run about 100 miles from the hamlet of Leeds in Greene County to Astoria, in Queens, where power would then be connected to the rest of the city. The electricity would be generated by wind and solar farms being built across upstate New York.

“The goal here would be to develop a link between the upstate bulk transmission system, which is very, very clean and efficient, and the downstate grid,” said Clint Plummer, CEO of Rise Light & Power.

The plan would create a potential competitor to the proposed Champlain Hudson Power Express, which would bring hydroelectric power from a series of dams in northern Quebec to New York City. That 335-mile line, promoted by TDI Inc,. already has many of its needed state approvals. But the company needs an agreement with New York City to purchase the power.

TDI spokesman John Lacey said there may be room for both underwater lines. He noted that his firm has permits and a ready source of existing power from the Quebec dams.

The entry of Rise Light & Power suggests that the Hudson River may increasingly be seen as a way to solve a challenge that has longed vexed the power industry — how to get electricity that is produced upstate, either through traditional hydro or gas plants, or solar and wind, to where it is needed in the highly populated New York City area.

That challenge has grown

urgent in light of the statemandated reduction of carbonbased greenhouse gas producing power outlined in the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which sets a goal of getting 70 percent of the state’s energy from renewable sources by 2030.

New York City has many power plants, but they are mostly older, highly pollutive, gas and oil plants.

Upstate has hydro and burgeoning solar and wind industries. But building bulk power lines to move that power to where it is needed is tremendously difficult due to the ferocious local opposition that crops up whenever a line is proposed.

Plummer said it wasn’t clear whether Catskill Renewable would supplant TDI or if both could co-exist in the riverbed. Both would have a capacity of about 1,000 megawatts, which could fill about 15 percent of New York City’s needs.

Plummer noted his project would use power generated in New York rather than imported Canadian hydropower.

That’s something the Independent Power Producers of New York State, which represents in-state plants, has noted. New York labor unions have said they would rather have the power produced in-state.

On the other hand, Hydroquebec, the provincial utility that would provide TDI’S hydropower, has been operating for decades.

Many solar and wind projects that would feed into the Catskills Renewable line are in the planning or construction phases.

Rise Light & Power is a subsidiary of LS Power, which builds transmission lines. Rise also operates a fossil fuel power plant in Queens.

Cuomo at varying times has indirectly expressed support for both concepts: TDI’S Hydroquebec plan and an in-state project like Catskills Renewable.

“Let’s build the cross-state transmission lines to develop that renewable market upstate and satisfy the need downstate. We know they have low-cost hydropower in Canada. Let’s run the cable, the transmission lines from Canada to New York City, to get that power down here,” Cuomo said in May.

On Wednesday, in the governor’s State of the State address discussion of climate and energy policy, the governor at least suggested a push to keeping business in New York, although that sentiment focused on power generating equipment rather than the actual electricity.

“We must stop relying on other countries’ economies to fuel ours. We must stop importing the green technology and equipment from other nations, and we need to create the manufacturing capacity here in New York,” he said. “To do that we must develop a steady flow of projects to start up and sustain those new businesses.”