VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — PJM will propose a two-tiered fee schedule for proposed transmission projects, officials told the Planning Committee last week.

Instead of asking for $30,000 to study any project costing at least $20 million, it will request that amount only for projects of at least $100 million.

For projects between $20 million and $100 million, PJM will recommend collecting a fee of $5,000.

The $30,000 fee proposal was approved Feb. 26 by the Markets and Reliability and Members committees after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected as discriminatory a previous plan to apply the charge to all greenfield projects but not upgrades of less than $20 million. (See FERC Rejects Fee on Greenfield Transmission Projects.)

“Because we put this threshold in place, we were going to be collecting for a larger number of projects,” PJM’s Fran Barrett told the committee. “Staff said that we could find ourselves over-collecting.”

The Planning Committee will be asked to approve the proposal, which would be tested over a two-year period, at its next meeting on July 9.

The fee schedule would be applied based on the cost estimates presented by those proposing the projects.

“If it turns out that a lot of people are trying to get around that with [estimates of] $99,999,000 we’ll have to revisit it,” said Steve Herling, vice president of planning.

Task Force Would Create Standards for Order 1000 Projects

A problem statement and issue charge introduced on first read Thursday would create a task force to develop minimum design standards for competitively solicited greenfield projects under FERC Order 1000.

The idea arose from concern that the designated entities for such projects would not be required to follow the design standards of the zonal transmission owner.

“We don’t want this new product to fix one problem but introduce a weak point in the system,” PJM’s Suzanne Glatz said, reflecting stakeholder feedback.

The design standards would apply to transmission lines, substations, and system protection and control design and coordination. They would take into consideration geography and physical and local needs of the project.

The task force would be open to all PJM stakeholders and would report to the Planning Committee.

Still Searching for Ways to Incent Early Project Submissions

The committee endorsed a problem statement and issue charge to find ways to incent customers to submit transmission projects earlier in the queue window.

The issue will be assigned to the Planning Committee, which will have three to six months to identify better incentives to encourage earlier participation. (See PJM to Try Again to Speed Interconnection Filings.)

The imposition of non-refundable fees that escalate later in the queue window have had little effect on changing participants’ behavior, said Dave Egan, manager of interconnection projects.

Meanwhile, those who have done their due diligence in their submittals are being held up by late, deficient entrants, PJM says.

— Suzanne Herel