Smart Path clean-energy transmission project in North Country hits halfway mark

Construction of the New York Power Authority’s (NYPA) Smart Path transmission project in the North Country is 50 percent complete. 

The Smart Path project will upgrade 78 miles of transmission lines that span from Massena in St. Lawrence County to Croghan in Lewis County, the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a Nov. 15 news release. 

With fewer poles made out of steel, the project will “harden the lines” against weather events and “enable the secure transmission” of clean energy from Northern New York into the state’s electric power grid. The project will “strengthen the grid and help advance” New York’s clean-energy goals, as outlined in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. 

Work on the Smart Path upgrades began in early 2020 and are on track for completion in 2023, “despite challenges posed by COVID-19.”

“Our state boasts a generous supply of clean hydropower, and transmission lines like the Smart Path project will help us meet our clean-energy goals and combat the effects of climate change,” Hochul said. “We are working to make these lines reliable and resilient, so that once we have all the clean power we need, we have a way to deliver it safely and cost-effectively to the areas across the state that need it — while creating family-sustaining, clean-energy jobs for New Yorkers in the process.” 

NYPA is also working with National Grid on a separate but connected transmission project involving the rebuild of about 100 miles of transmission lines in the North Country and the Mohawk Valley. The project — known as Smart Path Connect — runs east to west from Clinton (in Clinton County) to Massena and North-South from Croghan to Marcy. 

When completed, the two segments of Smart Path Connect will join the Smart Path project, creating one continuous upgraded transmission line from Clinton to Marcy. The Smart Path Connect project is currently under environmental review with the New York State Public Service Commission.

About Smart Path 

Phase one of the Smart Path project involves rebuilding about 78 miles of the total 86-mile transmission artery that the federal government originally built in 1942. 

Phase two of the Smart Path project will be completed as part of the Smart Path Connect project and will upgrade an additional six miles of 230kV transmission lines to 345kV. The Smart Path line was the first asset that NYPA acquired in 1950. Running north to south through St. Lawrence and Lewis counties in the North Country, the newly rebuilt lines will connect “economical, clean and renewable” energy into the statewide power system, including low-cost hydropower from NYPA’s St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project as well as power from newly constructed renewable-energy sources such as wind and solar, per Hochul’s office. 

Construction involves the replacement of the original H-frame wood poles, some of which are more than 80 years old with single steel monopoles in the existing right of way. The project, which includes high-voltage transmission lines from Massena to Croghan, has created hundreds of jobs during construction, per Hochul’s office. 

The rebuilt lines will be capable of transmitting up to 345 kilovolts (kV). They will be operated in the near-term at the 230 kV level until the completion of the Smart Path Connect project. 

Together, the lines are currently rated to carry 900 megawatts during the winter months, which is enough clean electricity to power up to 900,000 averaged-sized homes. The ability to increase the voltage when the demand requires it is a “cost-effective way” to add on more renewable power. 

That power could be from in-state renewable generation, anywhere along the transmission line, as New York “continues to advance its clean-energy goals,” the state says.