A major electrical transmission line proposal to carry power to New England

A major electrical transmission line proposal to carry power to New England from Canada through Vermont and New Hampshire has been canceled. Electric utility National Grid, one of the developers of the proposal, said in an emailed statement on Thursday that it “has determined that the project is not viable at this time.” The proposed 211-mile, $2 billion Twin State Clean Energy Link was one of three projects around the country selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to receive part of $1.3 billion in investment, the Biden administration announced this past fall. The proposed underground transmission line through northern Vermont to Londonderry, New Hampshire, would have been able to deliver power generated by wind and solar facilities in Canada and send to Quebec renewable energy produced by future power generators off the New England coast or other source. The proposed $2 billion 1,200-megawatt bi-direction hydroelectric transmission line that would have imported existing Canadian hydro-power into New England was announced in May 2023, when company representatives began community meetings with municipalities on both sides of the river. As designed, the 211-mile line would have been buried under roads from Canaan to Lunenburg, before crossing under the Connecticut River into Dalton in New Hampshire and then continuing as buried lines through Littleton into Monroe, where it would have joined an existing overhead transmission line system, which would be upgraded to deliver the power to its ultimate destination in southern New Hampshire and the larger New England energy grid. It was a partnership between National Grid, Citizens Energy, and the St. Johnsbury-based Northeastern Vermont Development Association.