NEWS – Hydro-Quebec and its American partner, Transmission Developers, recently submitted their power line project connecting Hertel substation in La Prairie to New York City. Named Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE), this project aims to supply New York with renewable energy produced in Quebec. This underground power line will notably cross the Jardins-de-Napierville RCM. Hydro-Québec will hold a public consultation by the end of the spring.
Hydro-Québec and Transmission Developers thus submitted their project as part of a New York State call for proposals. They will know if their project has been accepted by the New York authorities by the end of the summer or this fall.
If the project is accepted, construction could begin as early as 2021 in the United States and in 2023 in Quebec. Commissioning would then be scheduled for 2025.
Citizens will recall that a first version of this project was presented in 2013. Pre-project studies and public consultations were then held. Subsequently, the project was put on hold, before being reactivated, in the fall of 2020.
“Market conditions have changed,” says Lyne St-Laurent, spokesperson for Hydro-Québec. The availability and price of natural gas has caused energy prices to drop dramatically. It is this context which explains the pause of the project. “
The project
In the Quebec portion of the project, Hydro-Quebec intends to build an underground line at 400 kilovolts (kV) of approximately 60 km between the Hertel substation in La Prairie and the Canada-US border to complete this new interconnection.
The border crossing point will be under the water of the Richelieu River. This underground transport line would continue on the American side for a distance of 545 kilometers, to reach New York City.
Starting from the Hertel substation, the line will therefore have to join the border with the United States by crossing the MRC du Roussillon and the MRC des Jardins-de-Napierville, as well as the south of the MRC du Haut-Richelieu.
Public consultations will therefore take place in the three RCMs concerned. The dates of these consultations are not yet known, however.
“We are consulting the population to choose the best route,” assures Ms. St-Laurent. One of our priorities is to avoid farmland. ”
Underground line
This power line must be buried along its entire length.
The construction method consists of digging a trench approximately 1 m wide and 1.5 m deep, then installing a concrete pipeline to bury the two electric cables of the line.
“From an environmental standpoint, the particularity of an underground line project, as currently studied, is that the main impacts on the natural and human environment are temporary, being mainly associated with construction work,” Hydro-Québec indicates on the page of its website dedicated to this project. There is therefore no or very few residual environmental impacts for this project. ”
Benefits
This line, with a capacity of 1,250 megawatts, would deliver 10.4 terawatt-hours of electricity annually to New York City, which would supply 1.2 million homes, estimates Hydro-Quebec.
This energy input would reduce carbon emissions by about 3.9 million metric tons annually, which would be the equivalent of removing 44% of cars from the streets of New York City. In its first year of operation, this line would reduce air pollutants created by fossil-fueled electricity production by 20% in New York State, the state-owned company said.
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