Buried transmission line would deliver Canadian hydro power to southern New England
| Twin State Clean Energy Link will carry 1,200 MW of Canadian hydropower through the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont under the Connecticut River between Lunenberg and Dalton to an existing substation in Monroe, the Journal-Opinion reports today. 1200 megawatts is almost twice the output of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant that closed a decade ago. National Grid and Citizens Energy are lead project partners and are seeking federal investment through the United States Department of Energy Transmission Facilitation Program. Details were released yesterday. The project will develop new underground transmission lines from the international border to Monroe. It will then use the existing overhead transmission line corridor, owned by National Grid, that travels through Monroe, Bath, Haverhill, Benton, Warren, Wentworth, and beyond (see map below). How will the existing overhead lines change? According to the Twin States website: “The existing National Grid (New England Power) transmission corridor in New Hampshire extends from Monroe to Londonderry. Over a vast majority of that distance, from Monroe to Litchfield, the Twin States would simply need to reconductor the existing transmission lines, while replacing a small portion of them due to condition, or to provide the appropriate clearance for the new wires. A vast majority of the transmission structures in place now will remain, with two new wires replacing the existing conductor and the existing shield wire being replaced.” If Twin States Clean Energy Link sounds familiar, it’s because it is. National Grid pitched a variation under the moniker Granite State Power Link in 2017. At that time, the project relied on new overhead lines from the Canada border through Vermont and to the existing substation in Monroe. |
Categories: Energy
To feed the electric behemoth coming our way it will take infrastructure. The NE Kingdom is standing between what the future will bring and desire for maintaining what is there. This story has played out in many ways just ask the good people of Tennessee and the TVA.
There are other players here all of whom are stakeholders( or claim to be ) . Water rights claimed by indigenous First Nation people of Canada, foreign governments ( Canada), the Province of Quebec, the government (?) of Vermont, a myriad of Federal agencies, the Sierra Club and most likely Al Sharpton….. you choose the constituent in VT there will be a stakeholder.
You want a society based solely on renewables making electricity you get the associated by-products as part of the bargain. Oh by the way, the NEK people are part of the equation. They too want progress -even selectively such as enhancing or even getting in the network.
Power needs are all around us. Get used to it. Work with it. While there may be interim technologies coming our way in the future, there are existing technologies which will bridge the gap.
I recently read an article where they were interviewing someone from that Quebec plant that said they wouldn’t be able to keep up with all the demand of this state to meet their climate goals. The line that exists today from Monroe, I believe runs down through to lower states, unless I’m mistaken, how is that going to help the biggest part of Vermont with its demand? Are we to put money into this to benefit mostly out of state? This should be looked into.
I’m no engineer, electric, or otherwise so could anybody explain why it is not feasible or otherwise preferable to run this proposed new transmission line next to or with the existing VELCO line from Averill to Monroe ? Is the source of the proposed line that far away from the source of the existing line ? Where they cross the boarder, the new one would be only 8 or 10 miles from the existing one .
Vermont was doing just fine until imbecilic leftist fools came along and forced the shut down of Vermont Yankee. The same leftest dopes started ripping up Vermont farms, forests and ridgelines for junk wind turbines and gross solar arrays that are constantly getting curtailed because they are useless JUNK. This new powerline, from a foreign country mind you, is just more idiotic, destructive rubbish that the NEK does NOT NEED!