en.Wedoany.com Reported - North America's longest fully buried transmission line began delivering hydropower from Canada's Quebec province to New York City on Tuesday, state policymakers and grid officials said.

The $6 billion Champlain-Hudson Power Express is expected to transmit 10.4 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, meeting up to 20% of New York City's power demand. The project was completed ahead of schedule, with power from Hydro-Québec beginning to flow into the New York grid on June 1.

The line will help replace the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which was shut down in 2021. Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement that since Indian Point's closure, New York City has relied more on gas-fired power plants, leading to increased emissions in the downstate region. According to an analysis by the Times Union, when Indian Point shut down its two 1-gigawatt units in 2020 and 2021, more than 90% of the lost generation capacity was replaced by fossil fuels. Although the Trump administration had called for restarting the nuclear plant, Hochul rejected the proposal.

Hochul said the project further demonstrates that New York will maintain its position as the nation's leader in climate and clean energy, despite unprecedented federal headwinds.

The Champlain-Hudson line was selected in 2021 as part of a solicitation by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and construction began in 2022 by project developer Transmission Developers Inc. (TDI). The 1,250-megawatt direct current line connects to the recently expanded Astoria Annex substation of the New York Power Authority. TDI also built an approximately 4-mile underground transmission line, the Astoria Rainey Cable, linking the Astoria Annex substation to Con Edison's Rainey substation.

Claudine Bouchard, President and CEO of Hydro-Québec, said the Champlain-Hudson project "demonstrates how complex infrastructure can be realized through continuous collaboration and shared expertise. More importantly, it highlights the increasingly vital role of interconnected transmission networks in enhancing system reliability and resilience."

The Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) said last week that the new transmission project's commissioning will improve the region's power reliability this summer. In its 2026 Summer Reliability Assessment, the NPCC noted that power supplies in New York, New England, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia are expected to be adequate under typical weather conditions. However, under stressed grid conditions, some areas will still need to rely on operating procedures, in addition to imports, to address resource shortfalls.

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