One year to the day after receiving approval from the Connecticut Siting Council, The Connecticut Light and Power Company (CL&P) broke ground for a transmission solution that will extend the existing 345-kV transmission grid into the 54-town southwest Connecticut region. The upgrade will improve reliability and meet the growing electricity needs for thousands of citizens, businesses and institutions.

The Middletown/Norwalk project will include 45 miles of overhead lines and 24 miles under local streets. This is a project shared with The United Illuminating Company. CL&P is expected to invest about $1.05 billion to construct its share of the project.

“This project is an important step toward building reliability for the region to meet the energy needs of today’s digital economy. When this project is placed into service, it will relieve congestion costs in southwestern Connecticut, which will ultimately have significant savings for our customers,” said Lee Olivier, president, Northeast Utilities Transmission Group.

Construction is slated to be complete by the summer of 2009. The new line will begin serving customers by December 2009.

CL&P is scheduled to complete a 21-mile 345-kV transmission upgrade between Bethel and Norwalk later this year.