Celebrating Central East Energy Connect One Year Later

LS Power’s New York energy project underscores how instrumental competitive transmission is for public benefit.

The Central East Energy Connect (CEEC) transmission project that you see off in the distance on the hill while driving on Route 5S to and from Rotterdam is celebrating one year of service last week. It stands as a shining example of how competitively bid transmission projects can deliver innovative, low-cost solutions to serve the public.

This New York State energy project enabled the transfer of energy across the Central East Interface, allowing power to flow from Utica to Albany, and helped alleviate one of the state’s most congested transmission corridors, according to the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) August 2024 blog, “How Historic Transmission Projects Bridged an Upstate-Downstate Clean Energy Divide.”

Like highway traffic, power cannot arrive where it’s needed when the grid is congested. This congestion can lead to higher costs for consumers and inhibits the future construction of renewable resources if their delivery across the power grid is limited. CEEC and other projects sponsored by NYISO solved this congestion problem after almost a decade of planning, including tapping available renewable energy and moving it efficiently to homes and businesses throughout the state.

At a cost of more than half a billion dollars, the CEEC project succeeded in building resilient new transmission lines in place of aging infrastructure on existing transmission rights-of-way to relieve congestion and enable the integration of more renewable energy into New York’s power grid. The project can carry enough electricity to power nearly two million New York homes, providing reliable and increasingly cleaner energy for decades to come.

The CEEC project was fully energized one year ago in Dec. 2023. It was delivered on time, and as importantly, delivered on budget. In fact, the cost of the CEEC project, due to prudent project and construction management, was $200 million less than the cost NYISO originally estimated, ensuring that consumers receive those savings in terms of lower electricity bills today and in the future.

Project Beginnings

In April 2019, NYISO awarded LS Power Grid its first competitive transmission project in New York. This award also marked LS Power Grid’s first-ever collaboration with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) on a high-voltage, multi-year transmission project. LS Power Grid’s previous experience in building and operating high-voltage transmission across the country made a good fit for NYPA, while NYPA provided LS Power with a wealth of local expertise and regulatory knowledge as NYPA owns and operates one-third of the New York State grid.

Casey Carroll, vice president of LS Power, emphasized the importance of this collaboration: “NYPA was a trusted leader, providing insight to navigate the complexities of the regulatory environment and ensuring success. Thanks to NYPA’s efforts, we brought the project across the finish line together.”

Sylvia Louie, Director of Business Development at NYPA, echoed Carroll’s sentiments: “From day one LS Power and NYPA worked seamlessly to design, build, and now operate the Central East Energy Connect transmission line. This highly congested Marcy-to-New Scotland corridor has been opened up for the past year so that power can get to high demand areas more easily, resulting in a more efficient, economical pathway benefitting all New Yorkers.”

Among four other bidders, LS Power’s joint proposal with NYPA was selected by NYISO due to its combination of efficiency and cost-effectiveness, which included commitments to protect electricity consumers from cost overruns. The joint proposal called for the transmission system to be modernized in upstate New York to address historical congestion and, consistent with NYISO’s requirements, leverage existing utility rights-of-way to build new, high-capacity transmission lines that would minimize the footprint on local communities and the environment.

Lawrence Willick, executive vice president of LS Power, highlighted the significance: “The CEEC project went a long way in helping the state of New York achieve its renewable energy mandate as the project delivers more than double the target megawatt capacity, from the 350-MW minimum in the request for proposals to LS Power’s 875-MW solution thanks to its double-circuit design. Our solution efficiently provides over twice as much capacity for only 40% more cost.”

Project Highlights

The CEEC project replaced 1,250 aging transmission structures with 650 new steel monopoles and built two new state-of-the art transmission substations, all of which work together to increase the amount of power capacity by nearly five times the aging lines and does so more reliably.

Construction began in Feb. 2021 along 93 corridor miles in the Mohawk Valley and Capital Region. The project faced challenges during construction, including dealing with upstate New York’s harsh weather. Despite obstacles, the team worked diligently to keep the project on track, first energizing a five-mile segment in the towns of Princetown and Rotterdam by mid-2021, and completing one-half of the project by late 2022, including energizing the new Gordon Road 345 kV substation.

The second 345 kV substation, Princetown, was also a key component of the project, creating a robust new hub capable of handling peak load conditions. Casey Carroll noted, “We built a resilient system with the Princetown substation, which allows power to route efficiently where it needs to go, ensuring reliability even during extreme weather conditions.”

Another unique aspect of the project was a thoughtful outage plan, which ensured a continued reliable service during construction. Key work was completed during off-peak energy seasons, with creative sequencing to keep the grid running during peak summer and winter demand.

This joint effort by LS Power Grid New York and NYPA involved more than one million labor hours across five counties, 19 towns and one village to install more than six million feet of new wires. The project generated millions of dollars in state and local tax revenue as well as more than 100 union construction jobs and 25 long-term jobs in the state.

More Energy Coming Your Way

One year later, the increased power transfer capacity and reliability provided by the CEEC and other projects commissioned by NYISO (among other factors) have noticeably contributed to alleviating congestion on the electric system.

In fact, NYISO’s 2024 analysis on transmission congestion shows much higher congestion costs on the Central East Interface from 2018-2020 before construction began on the CEEC project. Post completion of the project, NYISO forecasts nearly a 95% reduction in congestion costs over the next 15 years (from 2025-2040), benefiting from the completion of power grid infrastructure upgrades in the region.

In addition, LS Power has observed improved power flows while operating and maintaining the transmission system built by the CEEC project. Brian Brau, associate vice president of LS Power Grid New York, stated, “Since the CEEC project was placed into service in late 2023, the transfer limits across the Central East Interface have increased dramatically by approximately 1,000 MW. This provided an immediate impact, as witnessed during a January 2024 winter cold spell, where power flows of roughly 3,400 MW flowed freely across the historic bottleneck. By optimizing grid operations with this increased capacity, the CEEC project ensures more stable and efficient energy flows across the network.”