Massachusetts spent a decade building a hydropower lifeline from Canada until it went dark for two weeks and left the region burning natural gas through its hottest summer days

Boston temperatures were climbing toward 90°F, air conditioners were running across the region, and electricity demand was rising — exactly the conditions a decade-long, $1 billion-plus transmission project from Canada was built to handle. Instead, the New England Clean Energy Connect had gone silent.

For two weeks, the 145-mile line delivered no power into New England. No formal announcement came from Hydro-Québec, the government-owned utility behind it. Just absence — at the moment Massachusetts needed the line most.

New England’s electricity demand peaks in summer, driven by air conditioning. Québec’s peaks in winter, driven by electric heating. That mismatch matters enormously: summer is precisely when Massachusetts needs Canadian power most, and precisely when Québec has the least domestic pressure to keep it flowing.

The January outage, while disruptive, carried at least a partial rationale. Hydro-Québec could reasonably prioritize its own residents during a cold snap on a brand-new line — Joseph LaRusso, senior advocate at the Acadia Center, acknowledged as much at the time. The summer pause offers no equivalent justification.

Unlike NECEC’s drought-driven variability, Vineyard Wind’s shortfall has a different character. LaRusso describes it as a political and legal dispute that will “eventually likely work itself out.” The long-term outlook, he argues, remains viable. There’s also a seasonal factor: offshore wind tends to generate more power in winter months, so Vineyard Wind’s current underperformance is less critical than it would be during a cold snap when oil and gas prices spike. “We need to take the long view,” LaRusso said.

To read the full article from Energies Media, click here.