Middletown-Norwalk

LI Replacement Cable

Glenbrook Cables

Waterford Substation

Bethel-Norwalk

Northeast Connecticut Reliability Project

New England East-West Solution (NEEWS)
Project Description
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Greater Springfield Reliability Project (GSRP)

Interstate Reliability Project (IRP)

Central Connecticut Reliability Project (CCRP)

New England East-West Solution (NEEWS)

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New England East-West Solution (NEEWS) is four related transmission projects developed by a working group of planners from NU, National Grid and ISO New England to solve five transmission problems identified by ISO-NE in its regional planning process:

• Limitations to east-west movement of electricity on the New England power grid
  
• Weaknesses in transmission around Springfield, MA, a major interstate transmission hub
  
• Limitations to moving electricity across Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island
  
• Rhode Island’s dependence on single transmission lines or autotransformers for reliability
  
• Limitations to the power that can flow from east to west within Connecticut

ISO-NE’s planning process considered these factors:

• Load growth
  
• Load reduction through energy conservation
  
• Planned and operating power plants
  
• Environmental impacts including air quality
  
• How to maximize regional benefit at the lowest possible cost
  
• Support for a competitive market for electricity

ISO-NE determined that ongoing energy conservation efforts, new power plants and new transmission are all needed. The planning process concluded that additional transmission lines were needed to solve the five problems.

FOUR PROJECTS SOLVE FIVE PROBLEMS

ISO-NE, NU and National Grid conducted technical evaluations to evaluate how the 7,000 possible combinations of transmission projects would perform during normal, peak and possible outage scenarios and how those options would support future flexibility. The evaluation identified four transmission projects, which are the best-performing, least-cost range options. The main components of these projects are 345-kilovolt (kV) lines, but they also include upgrades to substations and improvements to the region's 115-kV electric system:

• The Greater Springfield Reliability Project
• The Interstate Reliability Project
• The Rhode Island Reliability Project
• The Central Connecticut Reliability Project
  

These four projects taken together solve all of the five problems, will provide stronger interconnections across Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island and allow more power to be moved between east and west in New England.