Cables for New York’s largest clean energy project cross US-Canada border

The high-voltage direct current (HVDC) underwater and underground power cable project that will connect the Canadian border and New York has celebrated another construction milestone as cables have been floated across the U.S.-Canadian border marking the official start of marine installation work in Lake Champlain.

The initial circa 1.3-mile (around 2 kilometers) section of the HVDC power cables were floated from a cable installation vessel, positioned south of the wooden train trestle bridge in Rouses Point, along the surface of Lake Champlain to the U.S.-Canadian border in the Richelieu River, said to represent an important step forward in the development of the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) project.

A further 330-foot section will be passed over the border to CHPE partner Hydro-Québec for connection to the Hertel-New York Interconnection Line Project.

The main cable lay installation vessel, together with two cable transport barges, will now begin an almost 100-mile southward journey, simultaneously laying and burying HVDC cable and bringing them to their landing point in Putnam Station.

“This is an important milestone for CHPE and this innovative project that is serving as a model for how continued energy diversification and interconnected grids will play a critical role in securing a clean energy future,” said Hydro-Québec Energy Services Chief Operating Officer Serge Abergel. 

“We congratulate the CHPE construction team on this achievement and look forward to completing the cross-border interconnection work later this year, and delivering clean, renewable energy to New York City in 2026.”

Seen as the largest clean energy project ever constructed in New York State and the largest fully-buried transmission line in North America, CHPE will carry 1,250 MW of renewable energy, spanning approximately 339 miles (around 545 kilometers) from Québec to Queens, where it will provide 20% of New York City’s annual energy needs and power more than 1 million homes.

The project broke ground on the transmission line in November 2022 in Whitehall, and in September 2023 on the Astoria converter site where the energy will enter the grid. The inaugural HVDC cable run was installed underground in January, and energy supply is expected to begin in 2026.

NKT won the contract for the engineering, manufacturing and installation of the high-voltage 400 kV DC transmission line in the summer of 2022. Hitachi Energy is the supplier of the HVDC converter station with Light technology, while the lead contractor for the site is Kiewit Corporation.

CHPE is set to provide competitively priced hydropower from Québec that is expected to lower electricity generation costs throughout the state by $17 billion over the first 25 years of operation. The project also provides a total of $3.5 billion in economic benefits to New Yorkers and creates approximately 1,400 jobs during construction, with a commitment to use union labor.