Halifax-based Emera makes plans for $2B Atlantic Link

Halifax-based Emerais preparing plansfor the $2-billionAtlantic Link, the proposed563-kilometre underwatertransmission line it wants to build to carry clean energy from New Brunswick to southern Massachusetts.

Emera issued a callWednesdayfor 900 megawatts of hydro or wind electricity that it hopes toresell in New England.

Gerald Weseen, Emera's vice-president of U.S. government affairs, said the companyis getting ready for an anticipatedrequestfrom the Massachusetts government later this year for 1,200 megawatts of green energy.

Competitive process

"In order to be ready to bid into that, which Emera intends to do with the Atlantic Link, we need to have energy sources to put into the transmission line," said Weseen.

To meet U.S. regulatory requirements, Emera the parent company of Nova Scotia Power initiated a competitive process to source the electricity.

It could come from wind farms in northern Maine and the Maritimes to surplus hydro from Muskrat Falls in Labrador or Quebec.

Bigger than Maritime Link

The Atlantic Link would be bigger than the $1.7-billion Maritime Link currently under construction to carry Muskrat Falls hydro electricity from Newfoundland and Labrador across the Cabot Strait into Nova Scotia.

"The Atlantic Link is three times the length and one-third again the capacity of the Maritime Link," said Weseen.

Emera is proposing a new DC converter station to be constructed at Coleson Cove, N.B., with a subsea transmission line landing at one of two potential sites in Massachusetts.

Subsea line by end of 2022

NB Power holds an option to participate in the Atlantic Link as a minority investor.

The company expects to have the subsea line in service by the end of 2022.

Power Advisory LLC has been hired as an independent administrator to ensure fairness in the Emera solicitation.

The deadline for proposals isApril 12.

• N.S. to pay 'next to nothing' for Muskrat Falls energy: Nalcor CEO