Energy officials in nine Northeast and mid-Atlantic states have issued a strategic plan for expanding interregional transmission capacity to strengthen grid reliability, deliver carbon-free power and increase competitive power prices.
As a first step, the states — members of the Northeast States Collaborative on Interregional Transmission — will invite transmission developers to propose projects that could move power between New York and New England, and between New York and the PJM Interconnection serving the mid-Atlantic and eastern Great Lakes area.
The coalition that includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont would then select the most promising projects and seek cost-sharing agreements to present to grid operators and state and federal regulators for approval.
Officials and energy policy experts say the expanded power capacity could be critical in extreme weather, citing wintertime energy crises in Texas in 2021 and New York and the Southeast the next year.
