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 on July 1 and went dark that evening. Canadian utility HydroQuebec resumed service by 12:30 p.m. on July 2.
In a statement provided to The Epoch Times on July 15, HydroQuebec said, “Teams working around the clock have identified a fault with the terrestrial cable at a location on the U.S. portion of the transmission line route.”
The line remains down as New York City expects 98-degree weather on 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.
“Cable supplier NKT, [Champlain Hudson Power Express], and Hydro Quebec teams have finalized a repair plan, and repair work has begun,” the statement said.
The teams have to remove the portion of damaged cable and resplice in a new section of cable.
The teams estimate that repair work and line testing will take two weeks.
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 Inc., which installed the 339-mile cable, is working alongside Canadian utility HydroQuebec to fix it.
The outage started on July 4 and is still unresolved, as New York City has faced temperatures of more than 90 degrees for three days in a row. Mayor Zohran Mamdani had recommended that residents keep their thermostats at 78 degrees to conserve energy. The state’s independent grid operator forecast in April that if New York had three or more days of 95 degree weather, it would exhaust New York’s backup supply.
That means the grid operator may turn to the oil-burning power plants, known as peaker plants, that operate only 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 because CHPE would bring 1,250 megawatts (MW) 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 New Yorkers’ air conditioning on this summer.
Announcing the completion of the project on June 16, New York Gov. 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.
Regarding the heat wave in the first few days of July, Kevin Lanahan, senior vice president of communications of NYISO, said, “While reserves were extremely tight, we secured sufficient generation and other reliability resources to meet demand regardless of CHPE’s status.”
Grid planners at NYISO forecasted that demand for energy consumption this summer would peak at 31,578 MW.
On July 2, New York nearly reached that peak, when demand statewide reached 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.
