The power line that could reshape New York’s grid is hitting snags

<p>On July 3, as a heat wave swept the region, New York State’s grid imported <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67867" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">52 gigawatt-hours of electricity</a> from Canada—enough to meet about 9% of its total electricity demand that day.</p> <p>Some of that power shuttled in on a 339-mile power line stretching from Quebec to Queens called the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE). It opened in May and is officially the longest underground transmission line in North America.</p> <p>An underground power line might not sound all that exciting, but this could be a big deal for the state’s grid planning, and for emissions. It could provide up to 20% of New York City’s electricity demand, largely with abundant hydropower from Quebec.</p> <p>One wrinkle: The line has been down for most of this month, and some experts are concerned about how drought will affect the power supply feeding it. Let’s look at how the CHPE transmission line could help shape the future of our grid, and what barriers it needs to overcome to make a difference.</p> <p>Planning for the CHPE (which is charmingly pronounced “chippy”) started 15 years ago, with the permitting process formally beginning in March 2010. The vision was to build infrastructure to better connect Quebec and southern New York.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1263" height="994" src="https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/route.png?w=840" alt="Map showing the route of CHPE project over land and underwater, south from Canada to NYC." class="wp-image-1140768" srcset="https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/route.png 1263w, https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/route.png?resize=300,236 300w, https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/route.png?resize=768,604 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1263px) 100vw, 1263px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Champlain Hudson Power Express stretches 339 miles from Quebec to Queens. It is officially the longest underground transmission line in North America.</figcaption></figure> <p>Over <a href="https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/energy-markets/renewable-energy-canada/provinces/renewable-power-canada-quebec.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">99%</a> of Quebec’s electricity comes from renewable sources; most demand is met with hydropower, though the province’s wind capacity is growing quickly. New York has some hydropower of its own, as well as nuclear and wind, but the state still relies on fossil fuels for most of its energy generation.</p> <p>Transmission Developers, a company owned by the alternative asset management firm Blackstone, and Hydro-Québec, the province’s manager of generation and transmission, partnered to build CHPE. Construction began in late 2022 and wrapped up earlier this year. The total cost for the privately funded project turned out to be&nbsp; $6 billion.</p> <p>The construction of this line was a feat. It’s made up of a bundle of two high-voltage direct-current power cables, each measuring roughly five inches across. Developers buried the bundle underground or underwater across the length of New York State. Much of the line was laid at the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/nyregion/hydro-power-nyc.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bottom of the Hudson River</a>, requiring special boats that shot water jets deep into the sediment to create trenches for the cable.</p> <p>Connecting grids together can help accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels. The ability to move electricity to where it’s needed could also help limit the amount of new capacity we need to build. Research has shown that interconnection can help <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2921" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cut emissions</a> and <a href="https://www.pnnl.gov/news-media/more-electricity-transmission-lines-would-lower-costs-increase-reliability" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lower system costs</a>.</p> <p>But CHPE is off to a slow start and has seen two outages so far. The first, on July 1, was <a href="https://www.rtoinsider.com/136301-chpe-line-down-again-july-4/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly caused</a> by a trip at a converter on the Canadian side of the border. The second outage began on July 4, and the power line is still down as of the morning of July 22.</p> <p>Some experts say this isn’t unusual for a new infrastructure project. Other power lines have seen similar startup challenges, and the equipment hasn’t really been fully tested until it’s in operation, Normand Mousseau, a physics professor at Université de Montréal, <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/new-power-line-between-quebec-and-new-york-is-down-again/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told the <em>Gazette</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p>Officials traced the issue to a damaged section of cable on the US side of the border, and the company that manufactured the line sent experts to investigate the cause, according to <a href="https://www.rtoinsider.com/136589-cable-to-blame-for-chpe-outage/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reporting from <em>RTO Insider</em></a>, a trade publication.&nbsp;</p> <p>The damaged portion of the cable has been removed and replaced, says Lynn St-Laurent, a spokesperson for Hydro-Québec. “It is currently estimated that the remaining work, including necessary post-repair testing, will be completed by the weekend.”</p> <p>Similar woes have afflicted the New England Clean Energy Connect line, which opened in January, stretching 145 miles from Quebec to Maine. That project has also seen outages, and <a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/transmission/new-england-hydropower-transmission-line" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">very little additional energy</a> has flowed into the Northeast.</p> <p>The good news for New York is that the grid wasn’t relying on CHPE yet. “Our planning studies did not assume CHPE would be available this summer, and that was one reason the grid performed reliably during the heat wave earlier this month,” Kevin Lanahan, a spokesperson for the New York Independent System Operator, the state’s grid management company, said in a statement. “A core principle of reliability planning is not relying on any single project.”&nbsp;</p> <p>The idea is that eventually, states and regions <em>will</em> be able to rely—at least in part—on these projects, so there is pressure to get them working smoothly: Building massive transmission lines is a major long-term investment. In future years, as the equipment gets stress-tested and utilities begin to feel more confident in the projects’ reliability, they could play a bigger role on the grid.</p> <p>One thing to keep an eye on moving forward is the condition of Quebec’s hydropower fleet: The region has seen <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/nyregion/hydro-power-nyc.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">intense drought for the past three years</a>, eating into the water reserves used to generate electricity. That could mean there won’t always be abundant hydropower to ship across the border—even if the transmission lines are able to carry it.&nbsp;</p> <p><em>This article is from The Spark, </em>MIT Technology Review<em>’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, </em><a href="https://forms.technologyreview.com/newsletters/climate-energy-the-spark/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>sign up here</em></a><em>.&nbsp;</em></p>