A new push to boost electricity capacity across New England could help to get a stalled transmission line project to northern Maine — and related wind energy development in the region — back on track.
The effort by ISO New England, which operates the region’s power grid, will likely support the upgrade of a key substation in Pittsfield and other changes to move power farther south into New England. That could, in turn, make it easier to tap the mostly undeveloped wind energy potential of northern Maine, according to Jack Shapiro, director for clean energy programs at the Natural Resources Council of Maine.
Clean energy advocates hope the efforts by ISO New England could give a much-needed boost to Maine’s own plans to create more wind energy in Aroostook County and send it southward. State regulators are again seeking developers who could pull off a wind and transmission project with the new regional support.
However, it’s an open question whether the northern Maine transmission project will be able to overcome some of the early roadblocks — including local resistance along the proposed corridor — that have already stalled the project for several years.
Because all six New England states will share in the costs for transmission investments, ISO New England’s new effort could knock hundreds of millions of dollars off the overall cost to Maine ratepayers for a project in the northern part of the state, Shapiro said.
“It’s a really big deal and really exciting to see this kind of regional planning and thinking,” Shapiro said.
Across the U.S., the renewable energy outlook has gotten considerably darker under the new Trump administration, which has pushed executive actions and a Republican megabill that have removed key federal support for those efforts.
But Francis Pullaro, president of the green energy-supporting group RENEW Northeast, said the northern Maine project can survive without federal assistance.
“Federal support is not mandatory; however, certainly any project that can benefit from federal tax policy will have increased benefits for Maine and the region’s consumers,” he said.
Northern Maine has some of the strongest wind energy potential in the Northeast, according to experts. But harnessing that wind and getting the electricity it produces to the power grid has had its share of obstacles and stalled attempts, including the Number Nine Wind Farm canceled in late 2016 and the Aroostook Renewable Gateway canceled in December 2023.
Nonetheless, the region’s electric usage continues to increase due to heat pumps, EVs, and other electrification priorities, and the need for new power sources has grown with it, said Pullaro. That’s on top of Maine’s push to produce 100 percent clean electricity by 2040.
As part of ISO New England’s new initiative to encourage more transmission capacity, it has issued a request for proposals for various efforts, including developing new infrastructure in Pittsfield — or at an alternate location north of a substation there — that can accommodate the interconnection of at least 1,200 megawatts of onshore wind.
The RFP also seeks to increase what’s called the “interface capability” in two different parts of southern Maine near the New Hampshire border.
According to Shapiro, the ISO could select more than one project to address all of those needs but the substation and transmission line would be located in Maine. The six New England states would share in the costs, with bids closing on Sept. 30.
The Pittsfield substation, with its more northern location, could make plugging into the grid easier than a previous substation proposal near Augusta, although the transmission route has not yet been determined, Shapiro said.
Another boost to Maine’s renewed attempt to get electricity flowing from Aroostook County has come from Massachusetts legislators. The state had previously agreed to purchase 40 percent of the power generated from the Aroostook Renewable Gateway project, but that offer had a December 2025 deadline. Recently, the state approved extending that deadline to 2027.
In 2021, the Maine Legislature tasked the Maine Public Utility Commission with soliciting bids for both power generation and transmission for the Aroostook Renewable Gateway project.
New York-headquartered LS Power was awarded the transmission portion of the gateway project, and Boston-based Longroad Energy’s King Pine Wind was selected to generate the power with County located wind turbines.
The Aroostook Renewable Gateway was touted as the largest land-based wind project east of the Mississippi River. With its proposed 170 wind turbines slated to snake along a large swath of Aroostook County mountain tops, it was set to harness the northern Maine wind. And the complementary transmission line, starting in Haynesville, would have carried that power to the New England electric grid.
But cost and transmission route issues plagued LS Power’s bid, despite efforts by the company to meet with the public in a series of information gathering sessions along the proposed route. Many property owners were opposed to the route because in certain places it cut through the middle of farmlands or rural towns. In late December 2023, the PUC canceled the project because of cost uncertainties.
But in May 2024, the PUC put out a request for information from clean-energy experts and developers interested in bidding on the wind or transmission projects before proceeding with a new call for bids, to better determine how to move forward. In April, the commission made a second request for information that mentioned details on the ISO New England initiative and the proposed substation in Pittsfield.
The deadline for additional comments on the request is Sept. 30, according to PUC spokesperson Susan Faloon. The project is now called the Northern Maine Renewable Energy Development Program.
“Overall, the state and region must bring online low-cost clean energy that provides meaningful benefits to host communities, the states and consumers,” Pullaro said. “If we get this right, it is possible to envision a second regional project moving forward. If we don’t get this right, it means higher costs and energy shortages.”
The PUC expects to issue a draft RFP for the Aroostook wind project and transmission line to allow for public feedback in the coming weeks and then to issue the final request by the end of the year, said Faloon.
Pullaro said that whichever project is ultimately selected, its developers will have a critical role to play in meeting with communities and citizens to listen to their ideas and concerns, and answer questions.
“The importance of the line is that bringing it to fruition will, after 15-plus years of effort, finally unlock northern Maine’s clean energy potential, delivering lower electricity costs and significant community benefits and local investment and jobs,” Pullaro said.