A 100-mile transmission line isn’t most people’s idea of a summer celebration. But in Northern New York and the Mohawk Valley this June, newly energized transmission towers gleaming like sculpture created a mood that was anything but ordinary.
Smart Path Connect—a four-year effort to modernize one of New York’s most important transmission corridors—is officially energized. For anyone who works in energy or infrastructure or simply appreciates big projects that make it across the finish line, it’s a moment worth noticing.
Bringing Smart Path Connect to Life
Smart Path Connect is a 100-mile steel spine linking the North Country to the Mohawk Valley. The project, a collaboration with National Grid, runs 45 miles east from Massena to Clinton County and 55 miles south from Croghan to Marcy, replacing infrastructure that had quietly and ruggedly served the state since the Eisenhower era.
The original line stood on wooden poles for more than 70 years. Now, modern steel towers anchor nearly 200 miles of upgraded transmission when combined with NYPA’s earlier Smart Path project, completed in 2023.
“It’s one of the most significant transmission upgrades New York has seen in decades,” NYPA President and CEO Justin E. Driscoll told a crowd at Marcy’s Clark Energy Center, where the teams gathered on June 22 to celebrate the completion and energization of the southern portion of the project. “We’re enabling up to a gigawatt of renewable power to flow across the state.”
That’s one gigawatt, or 1,000 MW, of clean energy moving from where it’s generated, including clean hydropower from NYPA’s St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project, to where New Yorkers need it, as directed by the grid operator.
A few days later in Massena, the celebration continued near the northern portion of the project. On Haverstock Road, local leaders, union members and NYPA and National Grid teams gathered at the project’s largest new substation for a closer look at the state’s newest grid backbone. The towers, shiny and new, reflected the scale of what collaboration, engineering and determination can accomplish.
“This project has been years in the making,” said Trish Lombardi, NYPA’s senior vice president of project delivery. “From early development through engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning, it took incredible coordination and dedication. Today is an exciting moment for everyone involved.”
A Digital Leap Forward
Smart Path Connect is the first NYPA-built transmission line with fully digital substations. In a sector where equipment often lasts 50 years, that’s a major shift.
Kyle Murray, a senior construction engineer on the NYPA project team, put it simply: “Digital substations improve reliability, enhance safety and allow for more real-time monitoring and remote operation. Operators now have faster, clearer insight into how the system is performing.”
This is what a modern grid looks like.
Northern New York has long been a power hub. NYPA’s first asset—the Moses-Adirondack line, subsequently becoming part of Smart Path—was originally built by the Department of Defense in 1942 and transferred to NYPA in the early 1950s. The region’s clean, affordable power has been essential for New York for decades. Smart Path Connect strengthens that legacy as the next phase of the corridor.
Boosting Reliability and Regional Growth
At the Massena luncheon, President Driscoll underscored the project’s impact: “Because of your work, New York now has nearly 200 miles of modernized transmission capable of moving a gigawatt of renewable energy across the state.”
Local leaders highlighted the economic benefits. Assemblyman Scott Gray called Smart Path Connect “a major win for the region,” noting that the added capacity positions the North Country as a true energy hub capable of attracting businesses and expanding opportunity.
“We know how to generate power in the North Country,” Gray said. “Now we’re enhancing our ability to transmit it.”
Lombardi emphasized the statewide teamwork behind the project: “From landowners and local officials to our construction teams and partners, it took everyone working together to make this happen.”
What’s Next for New York’s Clean Energy Grid
NYPA’s investment in strengthening New York’s electric grid will continue. Building on the momentum of Smart Path and Smart Path Connect, the Power Authority is advancing Propel NY Energy, a transmission initiative designed to expand grid capacity and move energy to and from Long Island and the Bronx, Queens and Westchester County. NYPA is also helping to integrate more clean energy and bolster the transmission system across the state through interconnection work. This includes working to connect the recently energized Champlain Hudson Power Express, a transmission project carrying clean hydropower from Canada to New York City to help reduce emissions and bolster grid reliability.
Together, these efforts form a modern, resilient clean-energy backbone designed to serve New Yorkers for decades.
With Smart Path Connect now fully energized, the new 50- to 190-foot towers stretching across the landscape are more than engineering achievements—they’re visible signs of a clean-energy future taking shape in real time.