Critical NYC Power Line Down as City Faces Hot Weather

New York’s grid operator said the grid can’t handle 3 days of 95-degree weather in a row.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul tours the Astoria, neighborhood of the borough of Queens, New York City, power transfer station where the Champlain Hudson Power Express enters New York City, on June 16, 2026. Nicholas Zifcak/The Epoch Times

A critical power line in New York City remains down as the region approaches 98-degree temperatures, fueling concerns about city resources this summer.

July 14 marked 10 days since the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE), which delivers electricity generated by Canadian hydropower, initially shut down, and the second time it did so in recent weeks. The line formally started serving New York City July 1st and went dark that evening, with Canadian utility HydroQuebec resuming service by 12:30pm July 2.

In a statement provided to The Epoch Times on Tuesday, HydroQuebec said “teams working around the clock have identified a cable issue at a location on the U.S. portion of the transmission line.”

The line remains down as New York City expects 98-degree weather the July 15. The new power source, which went live in May but officially started delivering energy on July 1, is especially needed on hot summer days when homes and offices run air conditioning.

No estimate for when the line would go back up was provided.

“Cable supplier NKT, [Champlain Hudson Power Express], and Hydro Quebec teams are finalizing the repair plan and preparatory steps are underway,” the statement said. “A likely timeline for full restoration of the CHPE transmission line can be established once cable repair commences.”

The current outage of the CHPE was caused by a cable issue in the $6 billion transmission line, which travels down from the Canadian border through Lake Champlain and under the Hudson River. Transmission Developers Incorporated (TDI), which installed the 339-mile cable, is working alongside Canadian utility HydroQuebec to fix it.

The outage started July 4 and is still unresolved with New York City facing over 90-degree weather three days in a row. Mayor Zohran Mamdani had recommended residents keep their thermostats at 78 degrees to conserve energy. The state’s independent grid operator forecast in April that if New York had 3 or more days of 95 degree weather, it would exhaust New York’s back-up supply.

That means the grid operator may turn to the oil-burning power plants, known as peaker plants, which only operate during times of peak demand. New York State’s energy resource development body, which spearheaded the transmission line project, expected that New York City could rely less on these carbon-emitting power plants with CHPE bringing 1,250 MW (megawatts) of hydro power or about 20 percent of peak demand to New York City. In the New York region, 1,000 MW of electrical power can supply roughly 800,000 to 1,000,000 homes, according to New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), which manages the electrical grid.

Even so, NYISO said it was not relying on CHPE to keep on New Yorkers’ air conditioning this summer.

Announcing the completion of the project on June 16, New York Governor Kathy Hochul called CHPE a “lifeline” for New York City, as the new transmission line can fill some of the need that New York’s Hudson Valley-based Indian Point nuclear plant provided for before it was closed in 2021.

During the heat wave in the first few days in July, “while reserves were extremely tight, we secured sufficient generation and other reliability resources to meet demand regardless of CHPE’s status,” Kevin Lanahan, senior vice president of communications of NYISO, said in a statement. Grid planners at NYISO forecasted demand for energy consumption this summer would peak at 31,578 MW.

On July 2, New York nearly reached that peak, with demand statewide reaching 31,073 MW at 5:55 p.m., when the temperature got as high as 100 degrees in Central Park.

This week, the forecasted daily high temperatures will be two to six degrees lower than high temperatures during the first week of July.