[M]onths after putting the project on hold, the backers of the Vermont Green Line have pulled the plug on their proposal for a power cable under Lake Champlain.
The project’s sponsors last month quietly withdrew their permit application before the Public Utility Commission, ending National Grid’s quest to carry Canadian power through the cable to southern New England.
The Vermont Green Line would have brought 400 megawatts through Vermont on a path to southern New England, where states are seeking big contracts to satisfy recent regulatory requirements demanding more renewable energy.
Most of the cable’s length was to have been sunk beneath Lake Champlain. The cable would have been laid between Plattsburgh, New York, and New Haven, Vermont.
The project was one of at least two that National Grid had in the works, as state regulators noted in a filing last summer that preceded the company’s pause on the Vermont Green Line project.
The other cable the firm has underway, called the Granite State Power Link, would take Canadian renewable power to southern New England through New Hampshire, with a small portion of the cable running through northern Vermont.
Regulators and utilities had sought to know how the Vermont Green Line could tie in at New Haven without flooding the area’s electrical grid with more power than it needed or could accommodate.
The project’s backers put the application on hold in June. National Grid withdrew its application Nov. 15.
