Canada's energy regulator National Energy Board (NEB) and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (United States) have approved the 1,000 MW ITC Lake Erie HVDC transmission project. The US Department of Energy (DoE) has already approved the project, which will stretch from Erie (Pennsylvania, United States) up to Nanticoke (Ontario, Canada). The majority of the transmission line will be built and buried beneath the Lake Erie.
The ITC Lake Erie Connector is a 320 kV proposed bi-directional underwater transmission line that will provide the first direct link between the Canadian markets of the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) and PJM Interconnection LLC (Delaware, United States). Moreover, a 345 kV AC transmission line is also planned and will connect the Erie converter station to Erie West substation, while a 500 kV AC line would link the Nanticoke converter station to Hydro One’s Nanticoke substation.
The line will be deployed by ITC Lake Erie Connector, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITC Holdings Corp., which is the largest independent electricity transmission company in the United States. The company expects to start construction in 2017. The line could be in service as early as the fourth quarter of 2020.