$400M in Supplemental Projects Announced

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — PJM transmission owners last week, led by Dominion Energy (NYSE:D), presented the Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee with more than $400 million in supplemental projects.

Dominion outlined 13 supplemental projects totaling $366 million; all but two of them are the result of data centers or other “customer service” drivers. PJM has designated Dominion to construct a $603 million “immediate need” project to address short-term reliability issues resulting from data center growth through 2025. (See PJM Sees Additional $603M ‘Data Center Alley’ Tx Spend.)

In addition:

• • • UGI (NYSE:UGI) presented a $33 million project to construct a new 230-kV switchyard (nine breakers in a breaker and half configuration) and two 230-kV supply lines of about 2.5 miles to serve a new large load customer in the Nanticoke area.
    • PEPCO (NASDAQ:EXC) presented plans for a $420,000 project to upgrade an obsolete relay on the 230-kV Ritchie-Oak Grove line (No. 23058) at the Oak Grove Substation.
    • PECO Energy said it will add a third 230/13-kV transformer at its Master Distribution Substation to relieve surrounding substations and provide capacity for growth at a cost of $800,000.

$24M in Additional Tx Upgrades Needed for Cheswick Retirement

PJM is recommending $24 million in additional transmission upgrades to address thermal violations resulting from the March 2022 retirement of the 567.5-MW Cheswick generating plant in the Duquesne zone. The Springdale, Pa., plant was the last coal-fired generator in Allegheny County.

In August 2021, PJM said its analysis concluded that new and existing baseline projects would resolve any problems resulting from the retirement.

But the RTO told the TEAC last week that it had discovered “missing N-1-1 thermal violations” during a review of the analysis results using 2023 summer and 2027 summer load flow models developed this year. “The further investigation confirmed that there was [an] issue in the study file used for the N-1-1 thermal analysis performed in 2021,” PJM said.

The RTO is proposing the installation of a series reactor on the 138-kV Cheswick-Springdale line ($9 million) and a transmission line rearrangement that includes the replacement of four structures and reconductoring the Duquesne portion of the 138-kV Plum-Springdale line ($15 million).

The projected in-service date is Dec. 31, 2024. Operating measures have been identified to address reliability problems before then.

The RTO said it also is conducting reliability analyses for the retirement of NRG Energy’s (NYSE:NRG) Joliet Units 6, 7 and 8 (1,381 MW) planned for June 1, 2023, in the ComEd zone, and the Dickerson combustion turbine (18 MW) scheduled to retire in the PEPCO zone on Oct. 23, 2022. The Joliet plants — which were converted to gas from coal six years ago — are closing because of the Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), which requires the state to eliminate carbon emissions from its electricity sector. (See related story, Illinois Climate Bill Could Force $2B in Tx Upgrades, PJM Says.)

Officials said the Vineland CT (21.1 MW) in the ACE zone can retire as scheduled on Oct. 10 after an analysis found no reliability violations.