The Central East Energy Connect Transmission Project
Central East Energy Connect is part of a comprehensive portfolio of transmission upgrades taking place across New York State to support the state’s clean energy goals. Operational as of December 2023, 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.
New York Power Authority undertook the Clean East Energy Connect transmission project with LS Power Grid New York to rebuild approximately 93 miles of transmission from Marcy to New Scotland. The project replaced 1,250 aging transmission structures with 650 new steel monopoles and built two new state-of-the-art transmission substations, increasing power capacity by nearly five times the previous system.
Project Benefits:
- Enhances transmission reliability and efficiency
- Helps lower energy costs for consumers
- Supports current and future renewable energy resources
- Reduces transmission system congestion
- Provides capacity to power nearly 2 million New York homes
- Strengthens grid resilience to severe weather events
- Replaced aging infrastructure
- Created more than 100 construction jobs and 25 long-term jobs
New York’s Green Energy Superhighway
Central East Energy Connect helps realize the full potential of renewable energy in New York’s Mohawk Valley and Capital Region and contributes to advancing New York’s energy and environmental goals.
The project complements and expands upon both NYPA’s Smart Path, which was completed in June 2023, and NYPA’s Smart Path Connect transmission upgrade project, which will increase power flow capacity and transmission system resilience to severe weather events in the North Country and the Mohawk Valley. View map.
With the addition of the Central East Energy Connect, these and other transmission investments currently underway will establish a continuous, more reliable 345 kilovolt (kV) transmission path that greatly expands the deliverability of renewable power across the state.
Transmission work like Central East Energy Connect is also consistent with the Power Authority’s new VISION 2030 RENEWED Strategic Plan, which is focused on helping New York meet its clean energy goal of having a zero-carbon emission energy system by 2040.