PJM transmission planners have identified $148 million in grid upgrades that could be required if the B.L. England Generating Station is unable to proceed with its natural gas repowering plan.

Plans by Rockland Capital to convert two coal-fired units to natural gas have been on hold since the New Jersey Pinelands Commission rejected a proposed 15-mile natural gas pipeline through the protected region in January.

B.L. England units 2 and 3, totaling 300 MW, must repower with natural gas by 2016 or face closing due to tightening emissions rules. The $400 million repowering plan would extend the life of the plant, built in 1963 on Great Egg Harbor Bay, for another 40 years.

PJM officials told the Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee last week they have identified $148 million in line upgrades, transformers and substation work to address N-1-1 thermal and voltage violations.

Some of the upgrades were already expected based on the retirements of BL England’s unit 1 and diesels.

The upgrades would use existing rights of way, and include an upgrade of 40 miles of 138-kV line, thought to be the oldest existing in the Atlantic City Electric territory.

Christie Hits Back?

Meanwhile, in what some see as delayed reaction to the Pineland Commission’s rejection, Gov. Chris Christie last week vetoed minutes of the commission’s March meeting, effectively killing staff salary raises.

“This is round one in laying the political groundwork to replace commissioners and reverse the pipeline rejection,” Bill Wolfe, state director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, told NJ Spotlight.

Environmentalists see the pipeline route as violating Pinelands-protection rules, but Christie and others believe the pipe is necessary to clean up the England plant and keep it active in the state’s tight power supply market.