The brand new $6 billion cable bringing energy from Canada to New York City has been turned off for 10 days \u2014 and officials now say the problem is a cable failure somewhere in the Empire State.<\/p>\n
The new details on the power failure emerged in the midst of a heatwave, with temperatures expected to hit 97 degrees on Wednesday. Hydro-Quebec, a company wholly owned by the Canadian government that powers the so-called Champlain Hudson Power Express, said the failure on the 339-mile transmission line occurred on the New York side of the cable. The energy firm said they are in the process of making repairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cRestoring service to the cable as quickly as possible remains a priority for all involved with the CHPE project,\u201d said Peter Ross, spokesperson for Hydro-Quebec. \u201cWe will continue to provide regular updates as more information becomes available.”<\/p>\n
For more than a week, Hydro-Quebec said it didn\u2019t know what the problem was.<\/p>\n
This is the second time this month the transmission lines have failed. In June, Gov. Kathy Hochul attended<\/a> a ribbon cutting of sorts for the mostly subterranean line, touting it as one of the state\u2019s largest contributions to its renewable energy supply. She called the project a massive victory for the state\u2019s energy grid and climate goals.<\/p>\n But the line was largely inactive in June because of a contract issue. Hydro-Quebec said at the time that in July, the line would be up and running. So far this month, power has flowed through the lines for about three days<\/a>. State officials have directed inquiries to the company, which has shared scant details about what is causing the problems.<\/p>\n \u201dThis is a very unusual outcome for a competent utility,\u201d said Robert McCullough, principal of McCullough Research, an energy consulting firm. \u201c\u200aWhen something like this happens, the engineers from the vendor show up immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n The first failure was attributed to a technical failure on the Canadian end of operations. Hydro-Quebec did not provide the cause of the current failure or a timeline for when power will resume flowing to New York City.<\/p>\n