Talk:Quebec – New England Transmission

Crossing of Saint Lawrence River
Why was it undergrounded as there are many other overhead powerline crossings of Saint Lawrence River? Why was therefore a tunnel built and the cables were not just laid in the river? How tall were the pylons of the crossing? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.46.222.202 (talk) 16:07, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
 * The Saint Lawrence River at this location is a crowded sea lane in pretty shallow waters and the project was blocked because of opposition by local residents. So HQ decided to tunnel their way through. Took them 2 years, it cost over C$150 M but they badly needed the line. Bouchecl (talk) 00:04, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

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Future expansion curtailed
I just added the following with citation:

In July 2019, Eversource issued a statement that the Northern Pass project was now "off the table" after investing $318 million over a decade to develop and promote the project.

The material before this was way too complex as I don't recognize any of the multitudinous parties and institutions that had their entrepreneurial oar in this.

Consider the sum of money expended just by Eversource one would think this initiative could have supported its own dedicated Wikipedia article. There might actually be some historical value here, if anyone cared enough.

For example, the current treatment is light on the original motivations or sales job: to revitalize Franklin, etc. etc.

Somehow I doubt that anyone cares enough, but you never know. &mdash; MaxEnt 22:30, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

Main image should properly be a map
I don't think this page is quite as low in importance as its current neglected state suggests: one cancelled expansion cost $320 million and never even got to the construction stage.

As the key point of interest is multi-terminal HVDC, it would be great if the first image was a map of the multi-terminal distribution network, if someone can find such a thing under suitable copyright. &mdash; MaxEnt 22:54, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

Does anyone actually call it that?
Was this name just made up out of whole cloth to be the title of an article about three different transmission projects, or is there a WP:RS that actually uses this name? "Phase 2" is what it's called on this side of the border by ISO New England. This reminds me a lot of European editors inventing their own names for thousands of US broadcast towers that the owners and tenants wouldn't recognize.

Anyway, Northern Pass and New England Clean Energy Connect should be their own articles. Plenty of press coverage so there are independent, reliable sources. 207.180.169.36 (talk) 15:46, 28 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Not claiming to have any local knowledge here but since I've just been doing a bit of research anyway:
 * * Hitachi/ABB (who installed it) calls it "Québec - New England".
 * * Academic papers contemporary to the phase 2 expansion seem to call it "Quebec-New England Phase II", "Hydro Quebec-New England Phase II", or "Hydro-Quebec-New England HVDC system"
 * * Papers contemporary to phase 1 call it "New England-Hydro-Quebec Phase I" or the "New England-Hydro-Quebec HVDC Intertie".
 * I don't think this article should be named "phase 2" because it also discusses phase 1 of the project. It seems like "phase 2" is used as a shorthand but there's not really an officially accepted full name. That said, I don't really like the use of "transmission" as a noun in the title.
 * In the absence of a clear official name, there's some precedent among similar articles on Wikipedia for the name to be "HVDC Québec-New England", which I think I'd prefer over the current name.
 * -- Russ (talk) 19:03, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

Comerford and Des Cantons terminals no longer in use
The Comerford and Des Cantons terminals appear to have been decommissioned sometime in or after 1990 (when Phase 2 was completed). The article doesn't currently mention this. (It's also clear on aerial imagery - especially at Des Cantons.)

This is confirmed by Hitachi (formerly known as ABB) here, but they're not clear on the timescales and there's oddly not much other info on this. --

Here's an reference confirming that:. (Above unsigned comment is not mine.) Ccrrccrr (talk) 23:21, 9 May 2024 (UTC)

Definitive Information and Action Plan
Wanted to lend my expertise to clear up some questions here.

According to the Transmission Service Adminstration Agreement the best official name for the facility is "Phase I/II HVDC Transmission Facilities", although in the industry the facility is commonly referred to the shorter name of "Phase II" which I will also use for the purposes of this discussion.

It is abundantly clear at this point that this article should be split into multiple articles. At present, there are two different HVDC transmission facilities in commercial operation between the Quebec Interconnection and the New England transmission system (as defined by the ISO New England Regional Transmission Operator (RTO) footprint), one of which is Phase II which this page is primarily focused on, and the other is the Highgate HVFC Back-to-Back converter which is not mentioned at all in this page and does not have its own page (it is listed in the "List of HVDC Projects" page though). On this basis alone, it is clear that this page should be returned to focus solely on the Phase II facility, and references to other cancelled (Northern Pass) and under construction (NECEC) facilities should be limited to referencing dedicated articles in the See Also section.

Regarding Northern Pass, due to local opposition, this project never physically materialized, and further, and can never exist in its previously planned and approved state due to the official withdrawral of the Proposed Plan Applications per. Based on this, it is unclear to me whether information about this prjoect has a place on Wikipedia. If there are other pages dedicated to about cancelled transmission projects then it may be worth its own article, otherwise it may be best kept as a description here but even that page contains outdated information regarding Northern Pass and its implications on the transfer capability between Quebec and the New England transmission system.

Regarding the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) project, physical construction of the project is underway, but it is unclear to me what the threshold of completion is to warrant creation of a dedicated Wikipedia article. Using only public information sources it is difficult to find definitive construction progress updates after around August 2023, so this aspect may need to wait for further public information releases. Thatspsychotic (talk) 12:52, 21 March 2024 (UTC)


 * I agree the the Northern Pass content doesn't belong here and also needs to be updated. I think it could merit its own page, even though it's only a historical thing.  It's of some historical interest--how a transmission line proposal can fail.  Ccrrccrr (talk) 23:23, 9 May 2024 (UTC)