The New England Clean Power Link is a proposed high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line from the Canadian border at Alburgh, Vermont to Ludlow, Vermont along underwater and underground routes. The transmission line will be comprised of two approximately 5” diameter cables — one positively charged and the other negatively charged. The cables will be solid-state dielectric and contain no fluids or gases. The nominal operating voltage of the line will be approximately 300 to 320 kV, and the system will be capable of delivering 1,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
The proposed underwater portion of the transmission line, approximately 98 miles in length, will be buried to a target depth of 3-4 feet in the bed of Lake Champlain except at water depths of greater than 150 feet where the cables will be placed on the bottom and self-burial of the cables in sediment will occur. In areas where there are obstacles to burial (e.g. existing infrastructure, bedrock), protective coverings will be installed.
The overland portion of the transmission line, approximately 56 miles in length, will be buried approximately four feet underground within existing public (state and town) road or railroad rights-of-way (ROWs). Very short sections of the route at the Lake Champlain entry and exit points, as well as at the converter site in Ludlow, will be located on private land that is controlled by TDI-NE.
In Ludlow, the HVDC line will terminate at a converter station that will change the electrical power from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). An underground AC transmission line will then run approximately 0.3 miles along town roads to the existing VELCO 345 kV Coolidge Substation in Cavendish, Vermont where the electricity will be carried on the New England electric grid.