Northern Pass hits new delay in N.H.; CMP’s $950M plan poised to move forward

The New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee opted Monday to pause all action on the 192-mile Northern Pass electricity transmission project, a delay that could result in Massachusetts turning to Central Maine Power’s competing $950 million project as the default winner in its Clean Energy RFP.

A State House News Service report in Mainebiz sister publication Worcester Business Journal noted that the New Hampshire SEC voted Monday to put on hold its Feb. 1 decision to deny a necessary certificate for the Northern Pass project — a ruling made orally and not in writing — until the committee's official written decision is published later this month.

The Portland Press Herald reported the delay is placing new scrutiny on CMP’s New England Clean Energy Connect plan to build a 145-mile line along a corridor it already owns, from Quebec to Massachusetts. The project would be paid for by Massachusetts electricity customers. Maine would benefit from construction jobs, and possibly from lower regional wholesale electricity costs.

The New Hampshire Union Leader on Monday reported that Michael Iacopino, an attorney for the committee, said that filing deadlines will push the timeline for the committee to reconvene its initial denial of the project certificate into May, a delay that could cause Massachusetts to abandon Northern Pass, according to the article in the Worcester Business Journal.

CMP has met with, and so far gained support, from 95% of the communities along the route, which will share $18 million a year in new tax revenue, the Press Herald reported.

In a Q&A with Mainebiz last October, then-CMP President and CEO Sara Burns, who retired at the end of last year, said the company's proposal to tap more than 1,000MW of hydropower from Hydro-Quebec was one of three bids submitted to the Massachusetts Clean Energy RFP involving Hydro-Quebec. Northern Pass was one of them.

Burns noted that CMP had acquired about a 54-mile right-of-way from what the utility already owned to the Maine-Quebec border and had accomplished that with four landowners. All told, CMP's New England Clean Energy Connect project consists of 145 miles of new high voltage direct current transmission line that would tie into the existing transmission system, as well as some upgrades to existing system.

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