CMP, Emera unveil ambitious transmission project for northern Maine
PHOTO CREDIT / PETER VAN ALLEN
Central Maine Power's Portland location. CMP announced a joint proposal with Emera Maine to bring clean energy to states across New England.
IMAGE COURTESY / EMERA MAINE AND CENTRAL MAINE POWER COMPANY
Central Maine Power and Emera Maine announced Thursday a joint proposal to deliver enough clean energy to power at least 250,000 homes in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island by connecting renewable wind energy generated in northern Maine to the region’s power grid.
The proposed Maine Renewable Energy Interconnect project would provide up to 1,200 megawatts of renewable energy from wind energy projects in northern Maine that are already in the planning and development phase.
It includes investments in the region’s bulk power system to add approximately 150 miles of new line, new substations and other improvements, extending from Hammond in Aroostook County to Pittsfield, where it would connect to the existing power grid.
The improvements would be paid for by utility customers in the southern New England states.
The utilities did not provide a cost estimate for their proposal, but CMP President and CEO Sara Burns stated the utilities were confident their proposal offered “a competitive price because we are tapping our existing infrastructure” and was backed by utilities with a track record of delivering projects on time and on budget.
“The MREI offers a cost-effective, flexible and scalable solution responsive to the Clean Energy RFP,” Burns said in the joint statement by the two companies. “In addition, these investments enhance the region’s grid reliability and provide access for the future expansion of renewable resources from Maine or eastern Canada.”
Emera Maine President Alan Richardson said the MREI proposal calls for using existing rights-of-way for much of the transmission corridor, which would minimize environmental impacts. “The MREI is a high-value, low-cost solution for the southern New England states’ need for clean energy with the advantages only companies with our resources can offer,” he said.
According to an economic analysis accompanying the joint release, the utilities state the MREI project will produce “nearly $70 million in annual customer savings across New England and create thousands of jobs and significant new tax revenue in Maine.”
Competitive process
The Maine utilities’ competition in the Clean Energy RFP process includes the Vermont Green Line project submitted by Anbaric and National Grid, which joined forces in 2014 to develop transmission lines to bring renewable energy into New England.
Their proposal would create a 60-mile, 400-megawatt electric transmission cable system to link Beekmantown, N.Y., with New Haven, Vt., via a cable to be buried along public roadways and submerged beneath the waters of Lake Champlain. Their proposal includes working Hydro-Québec, North America’s largest generator of hydropower, to supplement wind power to ensure a “block of clean, renewable energy is delivered around the clock,” according to a joint release issued with Invenergy, North America’s largest independent wind power generation company.
The proposal states that it would deliver “enough clean electricity to power 400,000 homes and is expected to save New England energy customers $500 million, according to a study released last fall.”
The Clean Energy RFP’s timeline calls for selection of bidders to take place between April 26 and July 26, with contracts to be submitted for regulatory approval between July 26 and Oct. 25.
CMP's separate plan
Gail Rice, a CMP spokeswoman, told Mainebiz today the utility also submitted a separate proposal to build a new 66-mile transmission line that would connect the company’s existing grid in Pittsfield to wind energy projects in place or under development in western Maine. That plan calls for transmitting up to 550 megawatts of clean energy to the southern New England states.
“They are two separate proposals,” Rice said, declining to provide cost estimates because the information was proprietary during the competitive evaluation and bidding process involved in the Clean Power RFP process.
Rice said that much like CMP’s $1.4 billion Maine Power Reliability Program, which was completed on time and under budget, both projects would support thousands of jobs in Maine.
“There would be a lot of direct and indirect benefits,” she said. “They would involve a lot of economic activity, involving numerous contractors.”
Rice said construction isn’t likely to begin until 2018, assuming the utility is successful in landing a contract for one or both of its proposals. “We would need to go through a very open, transparent and thorough permitting process,” she said.
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