Transmission Developers Inc. says it has started talks with two large Canadian power developers that are interested in moving power over TDI’s proposed $1.9-billion transmission line from Canada to New York. The Toronto-based developer plans to build the 355-mile Champlain Hudson Power Express, a high-voltage, direct-current line with 1,000 MW of capacity from Quebec to New York City. Donald Jessome, TDI’s president and CEO, did not name the renewable-energy projects for which his company is negotiating but described them as “projects already built or currently being built.” TDI expects to begin construction of the merchant line in September 2011 and

Almost four months after a deadly explosion halted work on a nearly $1-billion Connecticut powerplant under construction, developer Kleen Energy Systems LLC, Middletown, Conn., says the 620-MW gas-fired facility may be repaired and ready for operation next spring. But the U.S. Chemical Safety Board says it has found that “a disturbing number of companies” use the gas-blow pipe-cleaning process that led to the Feb. 7 explosion, which killed six workers and injured 50. Photo: U.S. Chemical Safety Board Kleen Energy Systems plant project, site of a fatal blast in February, could be completed by next spring, officials say. Gas blows

Although federal investigators are unsure of what caused Sunday’s deadly explosion at a powerplant under construction in central Connecticut, local officials are saying the accident occurred during gas line purging, or blow-down operations, in preparation for the facility’s scheduled opening this summer. Photo: AP Photo/Seth Wenig Michael Rosario, business representative for the Plumbers, Pipefitters, & HVAC Local 777, hugs a friend after telling reporters about losing three friends in the explosion at the Kleen Energy Systems power plant on Sunday in Middletown, Conn. The accident occurred just three days after the U.S. Chemical Safety Board approved recommendations on gas purging,

Though federal investigators are unsure of what caused Sunday’s deadly explosion at a power plant under construction in central Connecticut, local officials are saying the accident occurred during blowdown operations in preparation for the facility’s scheduled opening this summer. AP Photo Related Links: Lawsuit Alleges Safety Protocols Ignored in Kleen Energy Blast Although reports are unconfirmed that authorities are investigating the possibility that a welder’s torch may have created the spark that caused the blast, a spokesman for the project owner, Kleen Energy Systems, said that police were still treating the site as a crime scene. The accident occurred just