Energy Business
Thu, Sep 10
Molly Glick
Molly Glick
Energy Central Team
·Posted in Energy Business

NEWS: MA utilities and Hydro-Québec are butting heads over the rocky start to a $1.65B transmission line.

  • The background: The 1.2-GW Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) funnels Canadian hydropower into the New England grid—but, like the Champlain Hudson Power Express, it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing over the first few months.

  • The lawsuit: Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil are suing Hydro-Québec for cutting power eight days after the line went into operation in January…during a bout of brutal cold. The MA utilities claim Hydro-Québec violated its contract by charging them for non-existent electrons over 12 days. To keep the grid running, they dropped $40M on pricier energy sources.

  • The (other) lawsuit: Hydro-Québec countered with its own lawsuit—filed the same day—alleging that the utilities owe $50M for power sent over NECEC in Jan. and Feb (which they’ve “refused to pay”). The company also noted that the frosty temps in January forced emergency reliability curtailments, which allowed Hydro-Québec to halt power exports.

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