National GridUSA has completed a $27 million upgrade of its portion of the960-mile, 450-kV high-voltage, direct-current Canada-New England transmissionlink on time and on budget, it said in a July 12 news release.

The upgrade, which took about three years to complete,includes replacing control and protection equipment and installing newequipment that will enable National Grid USA to quickly locate problems on thesystem's transmission lines.

The Canada-New England HVDC system was placed into servicein 1990. National Grid USA is the majority owner of the U.S. portion of thesystem, which it operation on behalf of 35 other energy providers.Hydro-Québec operatesthe Canadian portion of the line. It runs from the La Grande hydroelectriccomplex in Quebec to Sandy Pond, Mass., and can carry up to 2,000 MW. ABBdesigned and built the original line, which began operating in 1990, andoversaw the upgrade.

National Grid USA is a subsidiary of .