The Public Service Board has approved the sale of 13 hydroelectric stations along the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers to a Boston-based investment firm. The board issued its decision Thursday.
The dams will be owned by Great River Hydro, a subsidiary of the investment firm, ArcLight Capital Partners.
The company made its bid for the dams late last year after TransCanada announced that it wanted to sell the 560-megawatt hydro system.
TransCanada said it wanted to sell the New England power system to help raise cash for a proposed $915 million natural gas pipeline deal.
The system includes six hydro stations on the Connecticut River, and another seven along the Deerfield river.
The dams are located in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts and include thousands of acres of recreation land and waterways.
The state of Vermont looked into buying the hydro system, and the Shumlin Administration put together a working group, but ArcLight aggressively pursued the acquisition and the state gave up its bid.
Federal regulators have already signed off on the deal.
The federal licenses for the dams in Bellows Falls, Wilder and Vernon expire in 2019, and Great River Hydro says it is committed to working with local communities on the FERC re-licensing.
