Gamechanger: Is Northern Pass Obsolete?

As reported by a variety of sources, including AP reporter Wilson Ring, a New York company is proposing to build a 1,000MW transmission line to bring power from Hydro-Quebec to New England via Vermont. Unlike the 1200MW Northern Pass proposal, the $1.2 billion "New England Clean Power Link" would be placed under water and underground.

 

Given that the Vermont proposal would bring the same energy to the same market at a comparable price in a similar time frame, it would seem that Northern Pass will find it difficult to make a case for an overhead line that has met fierce public opposition.

 

"I would say Northern Pass is obsolete and I would add that it is politically untenable," Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests spokesman Jack Savage said. PSNH's only hope to hold onto a transmission project now would be to go underground using transportation corridors, he said.
"Northern Pass missed their window of opportunity ... because they have been fixated on existing right-of-ways...They have as much chance of building an overhead (transmission project) as the St. Louis Cardinals do of winning a game 7," he added.

 

Kathryn Marchocki's  story in the Union Leader can be read here:

 

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20131101/NEWS05/131109966

 

Wilson Ring's AP story:

 

Montpelier--A New York company announced Thursday it hopes to build a 150-mile power line from the Canadian border under Lake Champlain and then across Vermont to the town of Ludlow where it would plug into the New England electric grid.

The $1.2 billion New England Clean Power Link line could carry up to 1,000 megawatts of Canadian hydro-electricity, enough to supply about 1 million homes, said Donald Jessome, president of TDI New England.

TDI New England is a subsidiary of the New York based investment giant Blackstone Group, which would provide funding for the project. Jessome said he expected it would take five years to complete the regulatory process and construction. The company hopes to begin transmitting power in 2019.

You can read the rest of the AP story here:

http://www.vnews.com/news/9129786-95/proposed-hydropower-line-would-run-from-quebec-to-ludlow-vt