Dive Brief:

• Five companies announced proposals last week in response to Massachusetts' Clean Energy Request For Proposals to help utilities procure 9,450,000 MWh of renewable energy. The RFP, issued earlier this year, was a joint request from the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and the state investor-owned utilities (IOUs). 
• All the projects announced thus far are transmission projects that would ship in clean energy from neighboring states and Canada, Masslive.com reports. Maine utility Central Maine Power, Avangrid, Eversource and Hydro-Quebec were among the companies who submitted bids. The rest of the proposals were not published at press time. 
• Projects will be chosen by Jan. 25 2018; contract negotiations are expected to be completed by March 27 and sent to regulators by April 25 for review. 

Dive Insight:

Massachusetts is set to become a top state for clean energy as utilities and companies continue to submit proposals to meet the state's clean energy goals. Gov. Charlie Baker signed comprehensive energy legislation into law last year, designed to boost the state's clean energy profile.

Under the legislation, utilities were required to procure 1,200 MW of clean energy, including hydropower and wind, in addition to a separate requirement to obtain 1,600 MW of offshore wind and establish an energy storage target.

Central Maine Power and its parent company Avangrid submitted two projects for consideration. The 1,200 MW New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line would run from the Canadian border to a substation in Lewiston, Maine to ship in hydropower owned by Hydro-Quebec. And the 1,100 MW Maine Clean Power Connection would travel 140 miles from the western part of the state to a connector in Lewiston as well.

National Grid submitted two transmission proposals that would ship in wind and solar power under development in New York and Canada. One — the Granite Power Link in partnership with non-profit Citizens Energy— was proposed earlier this year to link New England with Canadian hydropower and lower energy costs by more than $1 billion over a 10-year span, the utility said. The other project, the Northeast Renewable Link, would ship roughly 600 MW of wind, solar and small hydropower from New York to the state.

Emera put its 1,000 MW Atlantic Link project up for bid. The 375-mile undersea cable would link onshore wind and hydropower from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to Massachusetts.

Eversource's proposed 192-mile Northern Pass transmission line is also on the table. The project ran into problems earlier this year, however, when the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission rejected the utility's request to buy power off the project. It's unclear how that setback will affect Eversource's bid. 

Finally, TDI-New England, a transmission developer, partnered with Hydro-Quebec to submit two proposals that would deliver 1,000 MW of clean power through the proposed New England Clean Power Link. The first proposal would ship 1,000 MW of hydropower from existing dams owned by Hydro-Quebec. And the second proposal would deliver 700 MW of hydropower and 300 MW from a new wind farm.