The Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board will hold a public comment hearing on Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 6 p.m. at the Johnston Senior Center, 1291 Hartford Ave., on a plan to rebuild a 21.4-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line between North Smithfield and Warwick, according to a notice dated Nov. 10.
The Narragansett Electric Company, which does business as Rhode Island Energy, asks the board to find that the rebuild is not an alteration of a major energy facility and can go ahead without the board's full permitting process. After the hearing, the board decides whether the project may have a significant impact on the environment or on public health, safety and welfare. If it finds that it may, the project is treated as an alteration.
The line, known as the 332 Line, follows an existing right-of-way through North Smithfield, Smithfield, Johnston, Cranston, West Warwick and Warwick, from the West Farnum Substation to the Kent County Substation. The company proposes to replace 203 of the 223 existing structures with steel structures on concrete caisson foundations, keep and maintain 20, and replace the conductor and shield wire.
The company's June 1 application says the line was built in 1970 and that inspections from 2019 through 2025 found age-related deterioration. The most recent inspection found 77 defects, including seven structures classified as critical and needing immediate remediation, the application says. It argues that impacts would be mostly temporary and tied to construction.
The company's own cost estimate is $122.9 million, with a range of 25 percent below to 50 percent above, according to a May 27 presentation to the ISO New England Planning Advisory Committee that the company filed with the board in a Sept. 14 data response. The same presentation lists $62.4 million for a narrower option of targeted wood-structure replacements, but says that option plus a later project to replace the remaining structures, conductor and shield wire would cost a combined $136.0 million. It puts the start of major construction for the full rebuild in the first quarter of 2027 and the in-service date in the second quarter of 2029. As of Sept. 14, the company said ISO New England's interim review of the project was still under way.
Filings are on the docket page for SB-2026-03 and at the board's office, 89 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick. The notice asks anyone needing an interpreter for the hearing to contact the board's coordinator at least 72 hours ahead.
