(Reuters) - A new 300-megawatt (MW) Con Edison Rainey-to-Corona transmission line, which can power 240,000 average-sized homes in New York City's Queens borough, has been energized, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Wednesday.
The six-mile-long (10 km-long) line is part of the Reliable Clean City projects that will add 900 MW of transmission capacity across the city by 2025, retiring several fossil-fuel power plants used during peak demand hours and meeting rising clean energy demand.
The work in Queens accounts for $275 million of the $800 million Con Edison is investing in these projects. Con Edison is a unit of New York energy company Consolidated Edison Inc (NYSE:ED).
The other projects include transmission lines from Gowanus to Greenwood and Goethals to Greenwood.
"With this critical new transmission line, we are enhancing and upgrading New York City's electric grid and enabling the continued development of renewable energy," Governor Hochul said.
The projects are needed for reliability in 2023 and 2025 and to address deficiencies in two of Con Edison's transmission load areas because of the retirement or unavailability of older, air-polluting power plants, the governor's office said in a press release.