retaining the Northeast Utilities name for the next several years. After government approvals, the deal closed in April 2012. In 2015 the company (now known as Eversource) agreed to sell all of its New Hampshire generation assets in the same manner it sold its assets in Massachusetts and Connecticut between 2000 and 2006. The sale of the New Hampshire generation fleet was approved by the state's Public Utilities Commission on November 29, 2017, and completed on January 10, 2018. In June 2017 Eversource announced its merger with Aquarion Water Company for $1.675 billion. Aquarion would become a fully owned subsidiary and retain its own name, adding 300 employees and 230,000 customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. In December 2017, the merger was completed after government approval. Major projects Eversource Energy has participated in a number of projects to improve the reliability of the power grid in southwest Connecticut. The first project was construction of the $350 million 345 kilovolt Bethel-Norwalk transmission line through the western part of the state, and was constructed entirely by the company when it was still known as Northeast Utilities. With United Illuminating, an upgrade to the 69-mile (112 km), 345 kilovolt Middletown-Norwalk transmission line was energized in 2009 at a cost of $900 million. In 2013, the Greater Springfield Reliability Project, a component of the ongoing New England East-West Solution, was energized at a cost of $795 million. The project addressed numerous reliability issues with the Springfield, MA area's 115 kV transmission system by constructing two new 345 kV lines to the Agawam substation; one line north to Ludlow and the other south to North Bloomfield, Connecticut. The new 345 kV corridor added a new strong interface between Massachusetts and Connecticut. The project also involved rebuilding all of the 115 kV lines along the transmission corridor between South Agawam and Ludlow to increase their capacities, building a new 115 kV transmission substation in East Springfield (Cadwell), replacing the Fairmont 115 kV transmission substation in Chicopee with a new substation across the street, and configuring a new 115 kV line from South Agawam to Southwick using a combination of both new and old line segments of the former 115 kV path between Agawam and North Bloomfield. The new Cadwell and Fairmont switching stations allowed a number of three-terminal 115 kV lines to be broken up into two-terminal lines. Finally, the project allowed a problematic underground