PJM has reduced the number of potential transmission fixes for the AP South/AEP-DOM constraints to six candidates.
Six other projects were eliminated following sensitivity analyses for changes in load forecasts and fuel prices.
The projects remaining cleared the 1.25 benefit-cost ratio under all sensitivities and also reduced both AP South and AEP-DOM congestion in combined 2019 and 2022 simulations.
The six proposals include three by Dominion Resources and one submitted by Dominion High Voltage Holdings and Transource Energy (itself a partnership of American Electric Power and Great Plains Energy). The finalists also include one project each from LS Power and Duke-American Transmission Co. Costs of the projects range from $25 million to $301 million.
The fuel price sensitivity looked at natural gas costs $1/MMBtu higher and lower than the prices assumed in the base case. The load forecast sensitivity included an increase and decrease of 2% in load.
LS Power’s Sharon Segner questioned the planners’ screening. “There’s nothing that puts any kind of weight on the cost side and cost containment,” she said. LS Power’s $48.6 million proposal includes a cost cap.
Paul McGlynn, PJM general manager of system planning, said planners will consider cost certainty in further pruning the list of finalists.
Planners hope to select a winning project in time to include it in the 2015 Regional Transmission Expansion Plan.
Last month, they announced the selection of 11 other market efficiency projects with a combined cost of $59.2 million to address congestion in other areas of the footprint. (See “11 Market Efficiency Projects Selected; 12 still in running for AP South/AEP-DOM,” in PJM TEAC Briefs.) Those projects will be recommended to the PJM Board of Managers in October.
McGlynn noted that the RTO has done relatively few market efficiency projects in the past. “We’re very pleased to be having on the order of a dozen [market efficiency] projects to be taking to the board,” he said.
Planners also will reevaluate nine proposed projects to address constraints on the Loretto-Wilton Center 345-kV line, which caused the COMED locational deliverability area to bind in the 2018/19 Base Residual Auction in August. COMED cleared at $215/MW-day, $50 above the RTO price. (See PJM Capacity Prices Up 37% to $165/MW-day.)
The projects, with costs ranging from $11.5 million to $290 million, fell short of the 1.25 benefit-cost ratio in the original analysis. But one or more could clear the threshold if the analysis shows they can increase COMED’s capacity emergency transfer limit, McGlynn said.
Reliability Projects
The 2015 RTEP also will include reliability projects selected from among 91 proposals — 26 transmission owner upgrades and 64 greenfield projects — made in response to Window 1, which closed July 20. The window covered N-1 and N-1-1 thermal and voltage problems as well as generation deliverability and common mode outage and load deliverability issues.
The proposals range in cost from $13,000 to $167.1 million.
The RTEP recommendations also will include dozens of generation-related network upgrades (see pp. 34-68 of the PJM presentation).
Meanwhile, planners have begun reviewing proposals received in response to Window 2, which closed Sept. 4. The window sought solutions for transmission owner criteria and light load reliability criteria violations.
High Voltage Problem in AEP
Planners are considering more than $51 million in transmission upgrades to address a large increase in the number of high-voltage warnings in the AEP transmission zone and northeastern Mid-Atlantic regions. AEP also has seen a large increase in reactor switching for both low- and high-voltage conditions.
The problems, which generally occur during light load periods, are resulting from changes in dispatch due to new and deactivated generation, reactive support deficiencies and increased line charging from new transmission facilities.
Planners are considering spending $51 million to install a 450-MVAR static VAR compensator at the Jacksons Ferry 765-kV substation and a 300-MVAR shunt line reactor on the Broadford end of the Broadford–Jacksons Ferry 765-kV line in southern AEP.
They’re also planning six new shunt reactor installations in New Jersey, the cost of which is still being finalized.
Pratts Area Update
Planners said they will recommend selection of a Dominion project that requires no new right of way to address reliability problems near Pratts, Va.
Dominion will build a new 230-kV line from the Remington substation to the Gordonsville substation and install a third 230/115-kV transformer at Gordonsville at an estimated cost of $103.7 million.
PJM announced last month it was reconsidering its selection of the Gordonsville-Pratts-Remington transmission upgrade after learning that it will require about 18 miles of new rights of way, far more than initially believed. The proposal from Dominion Resources and FirstEnergy was estimated at $129 million to $164 million.
The Virginia State Corporation Commission, which would have to approve the project, says that existing rights of way should be given priority as the locations for transmission additions.
In response to a question, McGlynn said planners had not independently verified Dominion’s assertion that the new line could be built in the existing 115-kV corridor. “We relied on the work of the entities that proposed the project,” he said.
A representative from Madison County, Va., which had urged PJM to reject the original plan, praised the new solution, saying it was “symmetrical with the identified need and an appropriate fix.” The county had complained that the original project was unnecessarily large for the rural county.
— Rich Heidorn Jr.
