The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (United States), under the framework of the Massachusetts Clean Energy's request for proposals, has selected the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) power transmission project developed by HydroQuebec and Central Maine Power (Avangrid), as an alternative to the 1 GW Northern Pass (NPT) power transmission project promoted by HydroQuebec and Eversource Energy. The NPT project was selected by the Massachusetts evaluation team in January 2018 before being blocked by New Hampshire (United States).
The 308 km (192-mile) long NPT line would deliver up to 1,090 MW of electricity generated at Hydro-Québec's hydropower plants in Canada to Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the United States. A new direct current (DC) line would be built from the Canadian border to Franklin (New Hampshire), where a converter terminal would be built to convert the electricity from DC to alternating current (AC). Northern Pass is scheduled to be in service and deliver 9.45 TWh/year for a 20-year period by the end of 2020. However, the project failed to secure approval in New Hampshire in February 2018.
The US$950m NECEC project is a 320-kV HVDC transmission line from an interconnection at the Appalachian Substation in Québec (Canada) to a new converter station in Lewiston, Maine (US). If the project is endorsed, it would become operational in 2022. The project would spread on 145 miles (233 km).
The Massachusetts evaluation team will negotiate both projects in parallel (both will be conducted with HydroQuebec) but only one will be eventually chosen. In any case, one of HydroQuebec's projects will be selected and the company will have an opportunity to save its US$10bn export contract with Massachusetts.