Developers of a federally backed, major transmission line project that would have run through Vermont and New Hampshire have decided not to move the project forward.
Called the Twin States Clean Energy Link, the line would have brought 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower electricity — enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes — from Quebec to New England. In Vermont, the electricity would be carried through mostly buried transmission lines along existing roadways on the northeastern edge of the state.
Its design would have also allowed it to transmit offshore wind energy from New England to Quebec if New England were to eventually produce more electricity than it needs.
The project’s two developers, the Massachusetts utility National Grid and the nonprofit Citizens Energy Corporation, have not yet given a reason for canceling the project, which had been chosen to receive funding from the Biden administration. The Department of Energy had planned to distribute a total of $1.3 billion to three transmission line projects.
In a statement emailed to VTDigger, National Grid officials said they determined the project “is not viable at this time,” but are “grateful for the selection of the Twin States Clean Energy Link by the U.S. Department of Energy through their Transmission Facilitation Program (TFP).”
A spokesperson for National Grid did not immediately respond to a request for more information about the company’s decision not to move forward.
“National Grid thanks the dozens of route communities and regional partners who engaged with us and supported this project. We will continue to pursue paths to building much-needed transmission capacity for the region and for our customers and communities,” the statement read.
June Tierney, commissioner of Vermont’s Department of Public Service, said the Twin States project is not the only transmission operation chosen for federal funding that has pulled the plug. She said the Department of Energy’s timeline has been hard for developers to meet, though she could not say for sure whether that timeline thwarted the Twin States project.
“The fact that Twin States pulled out is a harbinger of problems that the Department of Energy’s extremely accelerated timelines are creating,” she said.
While projects may be able to secure a grant from the Department of Energy, they can’t secure buyers for the energy within the department’s timeline, she said.
While the power was not going to be delivered directly to a Vermont utility, the project’s cancellation is “regrettable in the sense that the region could have used this line,” Tierney said.
“Vermont is part of the New England region, and the regional grid needs capacity,” she said.
But Tierney said Twin States is not the only major transmission project that could increase the amount of power delivered to New England. She pointed to the New England Clean Power Link, a proposed 1,000-megawatt line that could also bring hydroelectricity from Canada to New England. That project, which has already received permits from Vermont’s Public Utility Commission, would traverse the western edge of Vermont through a 154-mile underground transmission line.
Ultimately, the Twin States project was chosen to receive federal funding from the Department of Energy, and the New England Clean Power Link was not, she said.
“We can hope that this means there’s an opening again for that project to prevail,” Tierney said.
