Hydro-Québec welcomes new plan to supply power to US after Northern Pass rejected

After seeing the Northern Pass project shot down, Hydro-Québec has welcomed a revised plan to export power to the United States.

Quebec's power would now reach Massachusetts through Maine instead of New Hampshire — where regulators voted down Northern Pass last month over concerns about potential negative impacts on the environment and tourism.

The revised plan, New England Clean Energy Connect, is a $950 million hydropower project proposed by Central Maine Power Co. and Hydro-Québec. 

"We are very satisfied to have been chosen," Hydro-Québec spokesperson Lynn St-Laurent told The Canadian Press about the revised plan.

"We have received a go-ahead to negotiate a deal," she said.

Less opposition expected

Final contract negotiations are expected to be completed by April 25.

Hydro-Québec must determine the costs on the Canadian side of the border, including a route in Quebec to build a transmission line to the Maine border.

The public utility will also have to return to the drawing board, to conduct impact, technical and environmental studies.

"The process will get underway in the spring, in the coming weeks," St-Laurent said.

St-Laurent told CBC News she expects less opposition to the new project.

"[Central Maine Power Co.] holds all the property rights to build the project," she said.

"It will be using an existing transporting corridor for almost two-thirds of the routes and has received support from commissioners and municipal councils."

Rejected by New Hampshire last month

The Northern Pass was suspended by regulators last month and a written decision is expected to come on May 1.

But that falls after a deadline that had been set by Massachusetts.

Speaking to CBC Montreal's Daybreak in February after New Hampshire's decision, Hydro-Québec CEO and president Éric Martel said the public utility wasn't discouraged.

"Hydro-Quebec has proposed also a line going through Vermont and a line going through Maine to get to the same place," he said at the time.

"The people of Massachusetts want that energy so, at some point, we'll find a way."

​Northern Pass was estimated to generate up to $500 million in annual revenues over 20 years, for a total of $10 billion. It was slated to be the biggest export contract in Hydro-Québec's history.