Connecticut Light & Power has unveiled a cooperative multistate plan to upgrade transmission lines in eastern Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, thereby improving electric reliability by increasing the interstate transfer of electricity in southern New England.
The Interstate Reliability Project — part of a group of transmission projects called New England East-West Solution — calls for 38 miles of a new 345-kilovolt transmission line along existing Connecticut rights-of-way, including upgrades to CL&P’s substations in Lebanon and Killingly.
Another company, National Grid, will construct the portions of the project located in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Construction for the Connecticut portion of the project is scheduled to begin in late 2010.
The cost of the Connecticut portion of the project is estimated at $251 million. New England’s 6.5 million customers will pay for a part of that cost, and CL&P’s 1.5 million customers will share another portion of the cost.
“The exact percentages and how those costs will be shared and distributed won’t be known until the regional electricity grid operator ISO New England determines it,” CL&P spokesman Frank Poirot said.
Transmission studies by ISO New England, CL&P, and National Grid — the utility serving most of eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island — identified the need for the upgraded lines.
“We are working to modernize our infrastructure to help secure the region’s energy future for years to come,” Northeast Utilities Vice President David Boguslawski said. “A stronger, more reliable electric grid will provide greater access to new power sources and provide New England with the infrastructure that is critical to the region’s economic health.”
In Connecticut, the project’s primary route would be located on an existing right-of-way between substations in Lebanon and Killingly and continue to the Rhode Island border. Local review is the first step before a formal project application is submitted with the Connecticut Siting Council expected late in 2008.
