Coalition to support subsea transmission corridor connecting New England to Atlantic Canada

The new white paper is titled ‘A New England – Maritimes Offshore Energy Corri-dor Builds Regional Resilience for a Clean Energy Future.’ The paper, authored by energy system experts at Power Advisory LLC and DNV, concludes that building a 2000 MW high voltage direct current (HVDC) subsea transmission corridor to link Nova Scotia with population centres in New England would support up to US$780 million in annual benefits to ratepayers across both regions if it is used to interconnect offshore wind resources in Canadian and US waters. This Can-Am corridor yields material cost savings to consumers and promises positive returns for investors. There is strong potential for those benefits to scale with more energy transfer capability.

The market opportunity

Offshore wind is an abundant and renewable energy source that has the potential to power millions of homes and businesses. New England states have already procured nearly 5000 MW of offshore wind, projects that are expected to come online in the next 2 – 4 years. However, the continued deployment of offshore wind projects on both sides of the border will be severely limited by transmission constraints without a more co-ordinated approach. The Massachusetts Energy Pathways to Deep Decarbonization report identifies at least 30 000 MW of offshore wind will be needed to meet the region's de-carbonisation goals, with new wind energy areas expected to be leased by the US Federal Government in the Gulf of Maine in 2024. North of the border, Nova Scotia officials have announced a goal to lease offshore areas to support up to 5000 MW of offshore wind development beginning in 2025. Connecting these two energy resources offers a mutual value proposition to consumers in eastern Canada as well as the northeastern states by providing enhanced capacity benefits, streamlined and shared investments that reduce costs, and reduced reliance on price-volatile fossil fuel generation.

The proposal

The white paper highlights the benefits of deploying a modular, multi-terminal HVDC subsea transmission solution with the capability of supporting bidirectional energy flows over roughly 1000 km between the two regions. This proposed solution is scalable and can be expanded incrementally in 2000 MW blocks as deployment in the region grows in the future. Typically, offshore wind projects connect to shore using individual, or radial, lead lines. This can result in multiple cable corridors that disrupt the ecosystem and fishing activities, as well as suboptimal use of existing points of interconnection (POIs), forcing subsequent developments to carry the burden of high onshore upgrade costs. By streamlining transmission infrastructure in the offshore environment, disruption and stakeholder impacts due to cable corridors are significantly reduced. Onshore interconnection facilities can be better optimised, and upgrade costs can be shared across multiple projects or substantially reduced. The application of HVDC transmission technology unlocks cost-effective development in areas further from shore while also providing essential grid support services and reducing the width of cable corridors relative to alternating current (AC) cable technology.

“When you take a step back and look at the big picture, it's difficult to see how the region meets its 2050 goals without employing this solution, and others like it,” said coalition spokesperson, Abby Watson. “Our white paper clearly demonstrates the benefits and the feasibility of this interregional approach. We look forward to working with policymakers, regulators, and other stakeholders to advance these technical solutions.”

What comes next

The NEMOEC Coalition's white paper outlines the need for policy and regulatory reforms to support Can-Am inter-jurisdictional transmission planning and offshore wind development. These reforms should include new ways of valuing the benefits of inter-regional transmission and associated changes to cost allocation rules, the development of coordinated transmission planning processes that consider cross-border cooperation, and the establishment of technical standards for HVDC offshore transmission networks.

The Coalition plans to continue its stakeholder-first approach to developing workable solutions to these challenges, refine the corridor scope based on forthcoming details of proposed lease areas in the Gulf of Maine and Nova Scotia, and conduct additional technical and economic studies. Alignment between regulators and policymakers around a long-term vision for the future of the region will be essential to the success of the NEMOEC project.

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