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Maine utility seeks to change route of clean energy line, will delay permitting

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Maine utility seeks to change route of clean energy line, will delay permitting

In a move to overcome a permitting stalemate at Maine's Land Use Planning Commission, Central Maine Power Co. has proposed to change the route of a proposed high-voltage, direct-current transmission line to avoid a remote pond. However, the change could delay permitting for the 1,200-MW New England Clean Energy Connect project, or NECEC.

In a Sept. 18 petition to state regulators, Avangrid Inc. subsidiary CMP asked the commission to reopen its application and amend its proposed 145-mile power line to bypass the government-protected Beattie Pond near the Canadian border in Franklin County.

During its monthly meeting Sept. 11, the 10-member commission tasked with deciding the project's route through protected scenic rural areas was deadlocked over the construction of a 1.2-mile stretch of the overhead transmission line close to the 27-acre Beattie Pond, which is sometimes used by fishermen.

CMP previously was unable to secure land south of the pond, called the Merrill Strip, because its owner's asking price was 50 times higher than the land's fair market value. In the new petition, CMP told regulators that the company recently obtained a mile-long, 150-foot-wide corridor easement from the Merrill Strip's landowner, Bayroot LLC. As reported by the Portland (Maine) Press Herald, records at the Franklin County Registry of Deeds show that the easement was purchased for "$1 cash and other considerations."

CMP told regulators that the easement would increase costs of the already $1.1 billion NECEC project by an estimated $950,000.

While the alternative route might satisfy the Land Use Planning Commission, the route change will otherwise delay its overall permitting with the state Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP.

"We are in the process of reviewing the request to reopen the record," said DEP spokesperson David Madore in a statement. "Originally, DEP estimated that draft decision would be issued in early November. However, the recent request to reopen the record will delay the timing of DEP's decision, how long has yet to be determined."

Selected as the winning bid in a Massachusetts solicitation for clean energy to help the state meet a 2016 emissions-free electricity mandate, the 1,200-MW New England Clean Energy Connect line would run 145 miles from the U.S.-Canada border in Beattie Township, Maine, through the state's western forests to Lewiston, Maine. In June, Massachusetts regulators gave permission to local electric distribution utility subsidiaries of Eversource Energy, National Grid USA and Unitil Corp. to contract for 1,090 MW of hydroelectric power from Hydro-Québec over the transmission project.

Maine's Land Use Planning Commission is also responsible for deciding the project's route that passes through Kennebec River Gorge and near to the Appalachian Trail. CMP has already agreed to bury the line near the gorge, while a segment of the transmission line near the Appalachian Trail would run alongside an existing transmission corridor.