{"id":807118,"date":"2026-07-17T04:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T04:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/807118\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T04:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T04:34:10","slug":"new-power-line-between-quebec-and-new-york-is-down-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/807118\/","title":{"rendered":"New power line between Quebec and New York is down again"},"content":{"rendered":"

A power line providing hydroelectricity to New York City from Quebec is down for the second time this month.<\/p>\n

The Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) line<\/a> was built to help New York City transition to clean energy and became operational in May. It experienced an outage on July 1 and a second, unrelated outage has been ongoing since July 4 and will likely last another two weeks, according to Transmission Developers Inc., who partnered with Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec on the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeams working around the clock have identified a fault with the terrestrial cable at a location on the U.S. portion of the transmission line route,\u201d Jen Laird-White, senior vice-president of external affairs at Transmission Developers Inc., said in an email. <\/p>\n

The 545-kilometre line \u2014 the longest fully-buried one in North America \u2014 runs from the Canada-U.S. border to a converter station in Queens. <\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

Laird-White said teams have begun repair work, which involves removing the damaged part of the line and replacing it. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is estimated that this repair plus the necessary post-repair testing will be completed within approximately two weeks,\u201d she said. \u201cRestoring service to the cable as quickly as possible remains a priority for all involved with the CHPE project.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec spokesperson Louis-Olivier Batty said the utility is collaborating with U.S. partners \u201cto make sure everything is going well,\u201d but that ultimately, since the issue is on the U.S. portion of the line, it\u2019s \u201cmore in their hands.\u201d <\/p>\n

The $6-billion privately funded project was described in a June announcement<\/a> marking its completion as \u201ca historic milestone for New York State\u2019s decarbonization goals and a blueprint for building large-scale clean energy infrastructure projects in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

The line is capable of supplying up to 20 per cent of New York City\u2019s electricity needs. The project intends to strengthen the energy grid as the city attempts to move away from fossil fuels and \u201cis expected to provide an estimated carbon emission reduction equivalent to removing nearly half of the cars from New York City streets,\u201d the announcement said.<\/p>\n

Normand Mousseau, a physics professor at Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al and scientific director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montr\u00e9al, suspects New York City\u2019s power supply won\u2019t be affected by the outage given that the line is so new.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast summer, New York was able to meet its electricity needs \u2014 all the infrastructure is still in place, meaning the thermal power plants, the interconnections, the transmission lines to other sites, and so on,\u201d he said in an interview Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Mousseau added that it\u2019s not unusual for new lines to experience issues at the start.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe equipment hasn\u2019t really been fully tested yet, if you will,\u201d he said. \u201cWe saw this as well, for example, with Muskrat Falls and Newfoundland and Labrador. When that line was put into service a few years ago, there were some fluctuations and difficulties for a while, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Batty echoed those thoughts in a separate interview, pointing out that the lines involve \u201cfairly complex pieces of equipment.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not unusual,\u201d he said. \u201cThat said, we prepare as much as possible to prevent it from happening.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked about potential revenue loss during the outage, Batty pointed out that Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec exports via other lines as well and that it can do so on the \u201cspot market,\u201d which allows the utility to sell energy at a higher rate. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe maximize exports at times when prices are most attractive,\u201d he said, pointing out that while Quebec has experienced bouts of hot weather over the past few weeks, representing an increase in demand for power, it hasn\u2019t yet experienced \u201cmajor heat waves.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cOur first mission is Quebec\u2019s energy security,\u201d Batty said. \u201cSo we maximize our exports, but we also make sure to keep the necessary margin to supply Quebec, which is of course our primary customer.\u201d <\/p>\n

The CHPE project involves a 25-year contract between Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. <\/p>\n

Mousseau pointed out that Quebec is facing a water shortage that occurs every 10-15 years and that demand for power has been exacerbated by the electrification of the province. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a very tight situation in Quebec, and since we have no need to export, (the outage) is not a major issue for Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec,\u201d he said. \u201cIf anything, it\u2019s the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

kthomas@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A power line providing hydroelectricity to New York City from Quebec is down for the second time this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-807118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}