New York's grid operator imported 52 gigawatt-hours of electricity from Canada on July 3, the most traded between the two countries since January 2025, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.
Heat wave pushes demand higher
A heat wave drove electricity demand in the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) territory up during the first week of July. Hourly peak load reached 31,097 megawatts on July 2 at 7:00 p.m. That fell short of last summer's peak of 31,857 megawatts, set on June 24, 2025, and remained well below the all-time record of 33,956 megawatts from July 2013.
Canadian imports covered 9% of NYISO's electricity demand on July 3. Hydro-Québec supplied a daily average of 1,400 megawatts per hour, and the Independent Electric System Operator in Ontario added 800 megawatts per hour.
A new line, at full capacity and offline again
Some of that power moved along the new Champlain Hudson Power Express, a transmission line linking Québec and New York City that reached commercial operations in May after three years of construction. The line has a capacity of 1,250 megawatts, which was fully used on July 3. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority expects the line to meet up to 20% of New York City's power demand.
The line has not run without trouble. An outage hit it in June, and it was taken offline again on July 4 for further repairs.
Both NYISO and ISO-New England have relied less on electricity imports from Canada in recent years, as drought has limited hydroelectric generation in Québec. Both grids have built high-voltage transmission lines connecting Québec hydropower to their regions, which could reverse the trend if hydroelectric generation increases.
