New England East-West Solution (NEEWS) is four related transmission projects developed by a working group from National Grid, Northeast Utilities and ISO New England to solve five transmission problems identified by ISO-NE in its regional planning process.

ISO New England is the independent, non-profit organization that plans and operates New England's bulk electric system, administers the wholesale market for electricity and oversees regional electric system planning. National Grid and Northeast Utilities are companies that operate many of the region's transmission lines.

The working group undertook the largest planning study to date to identify technical solutions that would allow the region's electric system to meet federal and company reliability criteria and solve these five problems:

  • Limitations to east-west movement of electricity on the New England power grid
  • Weaknesses in transmission around Springfield, MA, a major interstate transmission hub
  • Limitations to moving electricity across Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island
  • Rhode Island's dependence on single transmission lines or autotransformers for reliability
  • Limitations to the power that can flow from east to west within Connecticut

ISO-NE's planning process considered these factors:

  • Load growth
  • Load reduction through energy conservation
  • Planned and operating power plants
  • Environmental impacts including air quality
  • How to maximize regional benefit at the lowest possible cost
  • Support for a competitive market for electricity

ISO-NE concluded that ongoing energy conservation efforts, new power plants and new transmission are all needed. The planning process concluded that additional transmission lines were needed to solve the five problems.


FOUR PROJECTS SOLVE FIVE PROBLEMS

ISO-NE, National Grid and Northeast Utilities conducted technical evaluations to evaluate how 7,000 possible combinations of transmission projects would perform during normal, peak and possible outage scenarios and how those options would support future flexibility. The evaluation identified four transmission projects, which are the best-performing and among the lowest in cost.The main components of these projects are 345-kilovolt (kV) lines, but they also include upgrades to substations and improvements to the region's 115-kV electric system. The four projects are:

  • The Interstate Reliability Project (National Grid)
  • The Greater Springfield Reliability Project (Northeast Utilities)
  • The Rhode Island Reliability Project (National Grid)
  • The Central Connecticut Reliability Project (Northeast Utilities)

These four projects taken together solve all of the five problems, will provide stronger interconnections across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut and allow more power to be moved between east and west in New England.