Dive Brief:
- National Grid, which serves Massachusetts and New York State, said Wednesday it is investing $4 billion to upgrade upstate New York’s power grid.
- That money will go toward 70 projects, which will include building substations and rebuilding more than 1,000 miles of transmission lines connecting towns near Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. National Grid plans to roll out these projects over the course of six years.
- The utility said in a news release that the upgrades will allow the company’s transmission lines to carry more electricity and better handle extreme weather.
Dive Insight:
National Grid’s $4 billion “Upstate Upgrade” campaign is intended to improve resiliency and deliver renewable power to towns in Central, Eastern and Western New York such as South Oswego, Lighthouse Hill and Black River, the company said.
Climate change has increased the likelihood of extreme weather, and National Grid says upgraded transmission lines are necessary to better protect the grid from powerful storms and intense heat.
And the state of New York, which already generates more power from renewable energy than any state east of the Mississippi River, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, plans to add even more clean power to its grid in the coming years. The state has a goal of receiving 70% of its power from renewable sources by 2030. As of August, roughly 29% of the state’s electricity came from renewable sources, according to the state comptroller’s office.
“There is no transition without transmission,” Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, said in a press release. “Decarbonizing the state’s grid will require more than just generating wind, solar, and hydro power. We also need the poles and wires to deliver all that electricity to our homes and businesses.”
The upgrades should result in fewer power outages and quicker restoration of service if the power does go out, National Grid said.
“This six-year portfolio of work will transform the grid, improve reliability and resilience and enable us to deliver renewable energy to homes and businesses across New York,” National Grid New York President Rudy Wynter said in the news release.
In April 2022, the Department of Energy determined that transmission lines in the United States will need to grow by 60% by 2030 to meet heightened demand brought on by population growth and renewable energy projects that must be connected to the power grid.
The Inflation Reduction Act included $2.9 billion to upgrade transmission lines in the United States.
National Grid has announced eight projects so far. The Black River Clay Project is one of them. The endeavor involves rebuilding 62.1 miles of 115 kv transmission lines in Jefferson, Oswego, and Onondaga Counties in Central New York. Onondaga County is home to Syracuse. The project also involves the construction of a new substation in the town of East Watertown.
Another project involves rebuilding 20 miles of transmission lines in Western New York’s Monroe County, which is home to Rochester, the state’s fourth most populous city.
The campaign’s cost will be passed on to ratepayers over time, National Grid spokesperson Jared Paventi said in an email.
“Ratepayers won’t see any charges until the projects are in service and the costs will be recovered over the course of decades,” he said. “We expect the average monthly bill impact for a residential customer to be about as much as a candy bar.”
