(Montreal) SNC-Lavalin will be the prime contractor for power transmission developers for the portion of the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) transmission line project located in the United States, the firm said Thursday. engineers.
Posted at 11:22
The 545 kilometer underground power line, the majority of which will pass under water, is considered a major project for Hydro-Québec and provides for the delivery of 10.4 terawatt hours of electricity per year to the Town of New York.
Under the service contract announced Thursday, SNC-Lavalin will provide technical supervision and coordination of the design of the cables and the converter station in the United States, the Montreal company said.
The transmission line will leave from Hydro-Québec’s Hertel substation in La Prairie and will cross the American border under Lake Champlain. It will then travel south to connect to a converter station in Astoria, Queens, New York.
According to SNC-Lavalin President and CEO, Ian Edwards, this mandate allows the engineering firm to increase its footprint in the United States, one of its main markets, and demonstrates its commitment and ability “to offer solutions to achieve carbon neutrality to the market” and to its client.
Construction is expected to begin this summer in the United States, with commissioning scheduled for 2025. In Quebec, construction of the line could begin in the spring of 2023, Hydro-Quebec said earlier this month, but it must still be subject to examination by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) and the Canada Energy Regulator.
SNC-Lavalin’s Chief Engineering Services Officer in Canada, Dale Clarke, said the contract reinforces “SNC-Lavalin’s position as a global power grid leader, particularly in high voltage direct current (HVDC) technology applied to submarine and underground cables”.
The Champlain Hudson Power Express project will be executed directly by SNC-Lavalin’s HVDC Center of Excellence, located in Montreal. It has been in business for over 50 years and has completed several projects, including the Western Alberta Power Line Project (LTEOA) and the Lower-Churchill Project.