Exports to New York
Over 100 years of cooperation
Québec has a long history of supplying clean, renewable energy to the State of New York, beginning with the construction of the 200-MW Les Cèdres–Dennison intertie in 1914.
Several decades later, in 1978, a 1,200-MW, 765-kV line was completed between Châteauguay and Marcy substations. This represented significant integration of the Québec and New York power grids, opening the door to a substantial increase in energy trade between the two regions. In 1984, Hydro-Québec commissioned a DC converter in Châteauguay substation to increase flexibility in usage of the line.
These interconnections paved the way for numerous long-term agreements between Hydro-Québec and the New York Power Authority and others to provide energy and capacity services, including for the purpose of capacity exchange during peak periods—winter for Québec and summer for New York.
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Continued close collaboration throughout market deregulation
The strong relationship between Hydro-Québec and New York State continued throughout the evolution of power pooling arrangements and wholesale electricity markets, as Hydro-Québec became an active participant in the New York Power Pool in the 1980s and continued to work with its successor, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), created in 1999.
This shared history has fostered a rich partnership and has allowed New York to harness Hydro-Québec’s vast renewable energy reserves to meet its electricity needs and implement policy initiatives related to improving the reliability as well as the economic and environmental performance of its energy mix.
Today, the energy partnership is demonstrated in several ways:
- Annual deliveries of approximately 7 TWh of energy, which in 2019 avoided 1.7 million metric tons of GHG emissions, plus 900 MW of capacity
- Development and implementation of an intra-hour dispatch program facilitating the integration of more intermittent renewables into the New York system
Into the future, Hydro-Québec can contribute to a long-term clean energy vision for New York:
- 70% of the state’s electricity use to be met by renewables by 2030
- 100% of New York City operations to be powered from renewable sources
- Retired nuclear plants replaced by other non-emitting generating facilities
- Construction of a 1,000-MW interconnection between Québec and New York City and efforts to expand existing interconnections importing clean energy
History of energy trading with New York State
1970s
Signing of a 20-year contract between Hydro-Québec and the Power Authority of the State of New York (PASNY) providing for up to 800 MW of diversity power each year. These arrangements are based on the seasonal complementarity of their peak periods.
1980s
Two additional long-term contracts follow, for significant quantities of clean energy to be delivered from Québec into New York State.
1990s
Signing of a contract with NYPA for capacity and energy sales covering a period of nearly two decades. A contract is also signed with Con Edison for firm capacity service until the early 2000s, along with a cooperation agreement for R&D and mutual assistance.
2000s
Commitment to offer up to 900 MW of capacity to NYISO for 20 years (2010 through 2030).
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