After years of political and legal setbacks, a new power corridor through western Maine is finally nearing completion.
The New England Clean Energy Connect was proposed back in 2017 as a way to deliver electricity from Canada to the U.S.
Despite years of pushback the company behind the project — Connecticut-based Avangrid — says the 145-mile transmission line and power station upgrades will be operational by the end of this year.
In a filing with Maine regulators, the company said a 54-mile corridor from the Canadian border to The Forks is fully cleared. More than 900 pole bases have been installed and over 750 poles erected, according to Avangrid.
A line drilled under the Kennebec River for electric cables is nearly 80% finished, it said. The company is wrapping up work on a new converter station in Lewiston and other upgrades on the line, it added.
"At this time all construction workstreams of the NECEC are in active construction and on track for a Dec. 31, 2025 commercial operations date," the company said.
When finished, Avangrid says it will be New England's largest source of renewable energy, connecting to 1.2 gigawatts of hydroelectric power from Quebec.
Massachusetts electric customers are paying for the project, which was revoked by Maine voters in a 2021 referendum, financed in part by the owner of a New Hampshire nuclear power station.
Two years later, a jury ruled that Avangrid, the parent company of Central Maine Power, had a legal right to finish the transmission line.
