New England ‘Fuel Fight’ Portends Trouble for Clean Energy Grid

As Bob Kump sees it, the zero-emissions power produced by abundant Canadian waters should connect to Massachusetts customers as a way to meet clean energy goals and lower electricity prices in a region with short supplies of natural gas and an emerging renewable energy sector.

But the Avangrid Inc. executive finds his company’s $1 billion, 145-mile-long transmission line, called the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) project, locked in a bitter dispute with an unlikely opponent: another zero-emissions power plant operated by Florida-based NextEra Energy Inc.

On the surface, Avangrid’s case is a one-off complaint about whether NextEra should upgrade ...