POWERLINE PROJECT SHIFTS COURSE; CLEARS ANOTHR HURDLE


Mike McCagg
ccSCOOP News

03-25-11 - A proposed power transmission line slated to be buried beneath the Hudson River has cleared another regulatory hurdle, even while the planned route of the line has been changed.

Filings with the state Public Service Commission now show the planned route of the 350-mile transmission line that will predominantly be installed underwater originating at the U.S.-Canadian border has been removed from the Hudson River for some of Columbia County’s section of the river.

Instead, the four, five-inch-diameter high-voltage direct current cables that would supply 1,000 MW to New York City from facilities in Canada will largely make their way through Greene County on land, entering the Hudson River in the town of Catskill –across the river from the Germantown/Livingston/Greenport border area.

As first reported by ccSCOOP in August, the Champlain Hudson Power Express Inc. transmission project had initially called for the installation of the underwater through the length of Columbia County’s connection to the river.

The change in location of the power line was apparently made during negotiations with several parties, including Scenic Hudson, The Riverkeeper, the Public Service Commission, and the New York State Council of Trout Unlimited.

Despite the route changes, the project still received approval on March 17 from the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO). That agency OK’d the project's system reliability interconnection study, meaning the agency determined the project would not affect the state’s power grid.

“Anytime you build a line or generator that is going to connect into the bulk grid, it has to go through an impact study to determine how the new facility would affect the existing network,” said NYISO spokesman Ken Klapp.

Klapp stressed that the OK “has nothing to do with sighting approval.”

The $1.9 billion project promises to bring 1,000 megawatts of renewable wind and hydropower from Quebec to Westchester County, New York City and Bridgeport, Conn.

Dozens of agencies and organizations have secured stake-holder status in the review of the proposal, including Scenic Hudson Inc., Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation, National Grid, Natural Resources Defense Council and New York State Council of Trout Unlimited. While Columbia County apparently has not sought status in the project, Greene County on March 21 submitted a request to be added to the stakeholder list.

In the Greene County letter to the PSC seeking stakeholder status, Greene County Attorney Carol Stevens wrote “Greene County has direct and substantial interests in this matter.  For example, it is understood that the newly proposed route of transmission system is intended to enter Greene County along railroad rights of way and pass through significant portions of Greene County, including populated areas, streams and wetlands, before reentering the Hudson River along Alpha Road in the Town of Catskill.  The County is currently in the process of establishing, developing and extending a recreational "Rail Trail" system through portions of Greene County which will be intersected by the intended distribution line.  Additionally, the County-administered Agricultural Protection Districts, having significant effects upon local agricultural interests, exist throughout the Countyand are affected by the intended path of the transmission line. Depending upon the precise path of the line, these and other County interests will be affected.”