VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — A reliability analysis identified no adverse impacts on the PJM system from closing the 1,819-MW Quad Cities nuclear plant, which Exelon plans to deactivate on June 1, 2018.

Exelon announced the closure in June after failing to convince Illinois legislators to act on a bill that would help subsidize its money-losing stations. (See Exelon to Close Quad Cities, Clinton Nuclear Plants.)

It also plans to shutter the 1,065-MW Clinton station next June 1.

Meanwhile, PJM is wrapping up analyses on FirstEnergy’s plans to close its W.H. Sammis and Bay Shore plants — a combined 856 MW — in Ohio.

Those studies did indicate some issues, said Paul McGlynn, senior director of planning, but they are in areas where PJM already has identified needs for baseline Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP) upgrades.

“We’re just making sure those previously approved upgrades will meet the needs,” he said.

In July, FirstEnergy announced the retirement of Sammis, its largest coal-fired plant in Ohio. At the time, it said it would deactivate or sell its Bay Shore plant by 2020. (See FirstEnergy Closing Largest Coal Plant in Ohio, Bay Shore also in Peril.)

Third RTEP Window of 2016 Set to Open in September

PJM expects to open the third RTEP window of the year in mid- to late September, McGlynn told the Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee (TEAC) on Thursday. Its scope will be short circuits and 2021 winter and light load reliability.

McGlynn also provided an update on the second proposal window, which closed July 29. (See “PJM to Open FERC Order 1000 Proposal Window in Late June,” PJM Planning Committee and TEAC Briefs.)

PJM received 87 proposals from 13 entities in a dozen transmission zones to address N-1 and N-1-1 thermal and voltage issues and load and generation deliverability problems.

Of those, 46 involve greenfield projects, ranging in cost from $5 million to $224 million; 41 were transmission owner upgrades estimated at $30,000 to $125 million.

PJM said it cannot provide details on the projects until after cost analyses are submitted. They were due Aug. 15.

PSE&G End-of-Life Price Tag: $1.15B

McGlynn presented $1.15 billion in proposed solutions to end-of-life issues involving Public Service Electric and Gas equipment. (See “PJM Concerned PSE&G Equipment at the End of its Life,” PJM Planning Committee and TEAC Briefs.)

Planners are considering replacing the double 138-kV circuits on the Metuchen-Edison-Trenton-Burlington corridor with 230-kV lines in three sections: Metuchen-Brunswick ($125 million), Brunswick-Trenton ($327 million) and Trenton-Burlington ($349 million).

The 30-mile Metuchen-Trenton span is about 86 years old; structures in the 22-mile Trenton-Burlington section average 75 years old. About 81% of the towers are at 95 to 100% of their load-carrying capacity and as much as 30% of the structures require extensive foundation rehabilitation or replacement.

“We don’t have time to put [the projects] through a [competitive] window,” McGlynn said.

An alternative would be to rebuild the corridor with the existing double-circuit 138-kV configuration, an option that would be about 20% cheaper, McGlynn said.

PJM staff also recommend the existing Newark switch station be demolished and a new one constructed adjacent to that site at a cost of $353 million.

PJM Creates System Planning Modeling and Support Group

PJM has created a new planning department called the System Planning Modeling and Support Group.

The reorganization, which will take effect next month, is intended to streamline case-building, PJM’s Jason Connell explained. The effort is time-consuming, and PJM is seeing an increase in required cases, he said.

The unit will report to McGlynn, along with Interconnection Analysis, headed by Aaron Berner, and Transmission Planning, led by Mark Sims.

Planners are reaching out to transmission owners about the change, Connell said.

PJM Poised to Exempt TO Upgrades from Order 1000 Process

PJM is waiting until FERC accepts its deficiency filing related to exempting low-voltage facilities from the Order 1000 process before it files a similar request involving transmission-owner upgrades.

PJM’s Mark Sims said the commission is expected to act by Aug. 26, and the Planning Committee likely will be asked to endorse the proposal at its September meeting. If approved, the exemption would go into effect for the 2017 RTEP cycle.

The proposal would exclude typical transmission substation equipment upgrades from competitive windows unless there’s an indication that the problem could yield a greenfield project. (See “PJM Beefing up Details of TO Upgrade Exemption Proposal,” PJM Planning Committee and TEAC Briefs.)

Such upgrades would include short-circuit violations and fixes to substation terminal equipment such as wave traps, current transformers and capacitors.

In February, members approved revisions to the Operating Agreement exempting transmission reliability projects of less than 200 kV from the competitive proposal windows. (See “Low-Voltage Projects to be Exempted from Competitive Window Process,” Markets and Reliability and Members Committees Briefs.)

FERC responded by ordering PJM to make a compliance filing addressing concerns such as how stakeholders would comment on exempted projects (ER16-1335).

PJM Staff Continues to Scrutinize Planning Process

PJM staff is continuing to review the RTEP planning cycles and the TEAC’s communications and processes, Fran Barrett told the Planning Committee.

Preliminary discussions are being held internally, but Barrett assured members that no action would be taken without being vetted by the stakeholder process.

Cross-departmental teams are mapping out current processes and identifying areas for improvement.

“We want to take a picture of today, project it to the future and you tell us what’s right about that picture and what needs to change,” said Barrett.

For example, he said, while some stakeholders do business within PJM only, others are involved in transmission planning projects in other RTOs as well. One idea: provide members an ESPN SportsCenter-like “highlights reel” from various RTOs’ planning committees.

“We’re trying to improve workflow and do it more efficiently,” said Barrett. (See “PJM Starts Process of Redesigning TEAC,” PJM Planning Committee and TEAC Briefs.)

— Suzanne Herel