How power-hungry cities drive projects like NYRI

Goal: Move excess energy to coasts

The $1.6 billion megaproject known as New York Regional Interconnection didn’t arrive with the flip of a switch.

A decade-long push to open the nation’s energy grid to the free market gave birth to the proposed high-voltage power line. Lingering fear about the next big blackout nurtured it. A new wave of industry-friendly regulations has developers across the country scrambling to build electric transmission lines and turn inland power surpluses into fat stacks of cash.

The prize awaits anyone who can get excess power from places like Ohio, Colorado and Canada to the bright lights, humming air conditioners and glowing computer monitors of Los Angeles, Washington and the Big Apple.

It’s “the nirvana load,” as one energy policy expert explained.

NYRI is just one of many firms that has it in its sights. Similar power-line proposals are pending all along the East Coast. There’s one that would bring electricity from Ohio to New Jersey, another that would connect the suburbs of Pittsburgh to the suburbs of Washington, yet another that would link New Jersey and Long Island.

Middletown Times Herald-Record (New York)