Despite support from the U.S. Department of Energy, National Grid has backed out of a major project to significantly increase the two-way transmission capacity between New England and Quebec.  

The news is a setback for efforts to increase bidirectional transmission connections between the regions, which could become increasingly important in coming decades as electricity demand increases and intermittent renewables proliferate. 

“It’s discouraging that a project that had such significant Department of Energy support could not make it across the finish line,” said Joe LaRusso of the Acadia Center. “Broader U.S.-Canadian cooperation and coordination is still needed, because in the future we are going to have to have a grid that spans the entire Northeast Power Coordinating Council reliability zone.”

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