Mass. clears NU to erect power lines

Editor's note: A previous version of this story said a 23-mile power transmission network had been approved.

New England energy provider Northeast Utilities is set before year end to begin initial work on a 39-mile power-transmission system from western Massachusetts to Bloomfield, according to a regulatory filing.

Hartford-based NU disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it received final approval this week from Massachusetts siting authorities to construct the 27-mile segment of a set of 115-kilovolt and 345-kilovolt power lines to improve power delivery and reliability in greater Springfield and central Connecticut.

In March, Connecticut siting authorities blessed a 12-mile stretch of the network, from Suffield to Bloomfield.

Connecticut Light & Power and Western Massachusetts Electric Co. -- both divisions of NU -- will build and run the system expected to begin service in 2013. CL&P has more than 1.2 million customers; Western Massachusetts Electric has customers more than 200,000.

NU said Massachusetts approved virtually all of NU's desired route for the lines, extending from Ludlow, Mass. to Bloomfield.

However, NU says it is currently reviewing its two-year-old estimate of a $714 million price tag to build the transmission system.