The New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission line — also known as the CMP corridor — will be online by the end of the year, in time to supply power to the grid for the winter season, according to a winter energy plan released by ISO New England.
"We're expecting people in New England on some of those colder days to use anywhere between 20 to 21,000 megawatts of power," said ISO NE spokesperson Mary Cate Colapietro. "That's pretty similar to last winter's peak demand day."
The NECEC electricity transmission line will carry 1,200 megawatts of hydropower from Quebec to the New England grid.
The controversial project was first proposed in 2017 and had been rejected by Maine voters at referendum four years ago. But it came back online after Avangrid won a court victory in 2023.
“We have secured every permit, met every regulatory requirement, and overcome significant challenges because we believe we must address the urgent need for reliable energy at a time of rising demand," said Avangrid CEO Jose Antonio Miranda in a statement.
The company has earmarked 50,000 acres in western Maine for permanent conservation easement as part of the project. The plan was approved by the Department of Environmental Protection on Wednesday.
Groups including Maine Audubon, NRCM and the Appalachian Mountain Club said in a statement that the conservation plan should not have been approved as is, because it fails to protect mature and old growth trees, and sets a bad precedent for similar projects in the future.
“The NECEC plan includes an unprecedented delay of nearly half a century before a significant amount of the trees within the 50,000 acres reach at least 50 feet tall, which still doesn’t meet the straight face test for a mature forest," said Eliza Townsend, AMC's Maine Conservation Policy Director. "This should have been flat-out rejected by the DEP.”