The Smart Path Connect project from National Grid PLC - one gigawatt of clean power for New York

Reviewed: ad hoc news Software & Services desk. Edited and checked on 2026-06-25, 19:58. Details in the imprint.

The Smart Path Connect project from National Grid PLC runs through quiet stretches of upstate New York where you mostly hear wind in the trees and the crackle of distant substations. It is a long, steel-backed promise that more of that power will be renewable.

What Smart Path Connect does

Smart Path Connect is a roughly 100-mile transmission upgrade that links Canadian hydropower and upstate New York renewable sources more directly into the New York grid. It combines line reconductoring, substation work and digital controls to push about one gigawatt of clean energy south.

National Grid describes the project as a key piece of its wider New York investment plan focused on modernizing aging infrastructure and easing congestion on existing corridors. In practice that means taller towers, higher-capacity conductors and smarter protection systems spread across rural rights-of-way.

How it changes the grid

According to filings cited in recent coverage, Smart Path Connect is expected to save New York customers around $438 million a year, largely by unlocking cheaper renewable generation and reducing congestion costs. The project is part of an overall plan worth roughly £70 billion for National Grid across its territories.

Walking along one section near an upgraded substation, engineers talk about how the new hardware feels almost "tidy" compared with the older latticework: fewer bulky insulators, more compact switchgear, cabling that sits clean against steel instead of drooping. That visual order reflects a deeper push for digital telemetry and automated fault isolation.

Inside the investment story

Chief executive John Pettigrew has repeatedly framed these North American projects as part of a balanced portfolio alongside UK transmission and distribution, with regulated returns tied to allowed capital and performance metrics. Smart Path Connect contributes to that capital base once it enters service.

Regulators in New York are using projects like this to test how far they can lean on transmission upgrades rather than new fossil plants. For National Grid, the rules mean finishing on time cuts delivery risk more than it generates instant profit, but it earns stable returns over decades through the rate base.

What customers and crews see

For crews on the right-of-way, Smart Path Connect is hours of climbing, bolt tightening and stringing new conductors over terrain that switches from wet marsh to rocky hills in a single span. The work is physical, but the goal is quietly abstract: lower line losses, higher capacity, fewer outages.

Customers will mostly never notice anything beyond fewer price spikes and fewer amber grid warnings during winter cold snaps or summer heat waves. The cable humming between pylons carries more low-carbon power, but the light switch at home clicks the same way it always has.

Why investors care

National Grid PLC shares (ISIN GB00BDR05C01) trade in London under the ticker NG., with investors watching how US projects like Smart Path Connect support long-term earnings within the company’s regulated frameworks. The project’s role in a £70 billion plan helps underline the scale of that capital program.

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