Quebec’s energy minister, who met with New York officials this week, sensed “genuine interest” from the state in importing hydropower from the Canadian province. Pierre Arcand is hopeful that Hydro-Quebec, Canada’s biggest electric utility, can reach a deal by the end of this year to supply power to New York under a long-term contract, he said Wednesday in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters. The meetings came a week after Entergy Corp. said it’ll close Indian Point, a 2,000-megawatt nuclear plant located 25 miles north of New York City, in 2021. “They’re really looking at some obvious options, and we think we are part of those obvious options,” Arcand said. The trip was planned before Entergy announced Indian Point’s pending closure, according to Arcand. Among other people, Arcand met with Richard Kauffman, chairman of energy and finance for New York state, and Anthony Fiore, deputy commissioner of energy management for New York City. Fiore’s agency is in talks with “a number of renewable energy suppliers,” Cathy Hanson, a spokeswoman, said by e-mail. In an e-mailed statement, Kauffman said he’d discussed a “number of topics” with Arcand, including how to fight climate change and how the state’s committed to replacing Indian Point’s electricity “responsibly, cost-effectively, and efficiently.” The state “is not favoring Canadian hydro over any other solution to replace Indian Point in meeting its mandate of 50 percent renewable electricity by 2030,” Kauffman said.