PORTLAND — The state’s two largest utilities on Wednesday announced plans for a transmission project to what would be the state’s single-largest wind turbine project in Bridgewater.
Central Maine Power Co. and Emera Maine said the transmission plan to connect the planned 250-megawatt wind farm to New England’s grid would allow developer EDP Renewables to move ahead with requesting permits for the project from the Department of Environmental Protection in the coming weeks.
The agreement to work together on a transmission project to serve the Number Nine Wind farm is the first since the utilities announced in July that they planned to identify projects that could serve a regional demand for new renewable energy generation.
The companies said that the focus of the agreement with developer EDPR is the use of the Bridal Path corridor between Houlton and Haynesville. The agreement gives EDP an option to buy the corridor and gives the utilities the right to buy back the transmission development through that corridor.
Sara Burns, the president of CMP, said in a prepared statement that the agreement helps EDPR advance its project, which developers project to complete in 2017, according to a wind industry study released Tuesday.
The EDPR project has already secured power purchase agreements in Connecticut.
Gerry Chasse, president and CEO of Emera Maine, said the project and others it is assessing with CMP would help increase the reliability of the region’s power grid.
“Together these projects will address current and future transmission constraints, and create reliable and economic paths to market,” Chasse said in a prepared statement.
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