PC Discusses Attachment M-3, Transmission Upgrade Timeline

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — The PJM Planning Committee last week discussed the remaining open action items in tariff Attachment M-3, which describes the process by which transmission owners plan supplemental projects in coordination with the RTO’s development of the Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP).

Much of the discussion centered on the amount of time between TOs’ submission of needs for projects and their proposed solutions, with there currently being no specified timeline to follow.

Alex Stern of Public Service Enterprise Group said there was significant discussion between PJM and TOs following feedback from stakeholders that the amount of time between needs being brought before the Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee and proposed solutions was often too long, sometimes more than a year. He said TOs felt that was a valid concern and have asked their planning staff to bring solutions back sooner.

“Thus far it’s an informal monitoring process, but the TOs so far are not seeing the same degree of problem that inspired the concern,” Stern said. “And by that I mean we definitely heard about the need being brought and then the solution not being brought for a significant amount of time after that, but the TOs heard the critique, believe it has been addressed and are not seeing that issue continuing to be a problem.” He added that if significant gaps start to reappear, those concerns should be voiced.

PJM’s Sami Abdulsalam said the RTO is considering that action item in the ongoing review of Attachment M-3 to be closed.

Update on RTEP Window 3

Abdulsalam provided the TEAC with an update on the ongoing 2022 RTEP Window 3, which opened on Jan. 31 and is scheduled to close on April 25. The window was added to the RTEP to address reliability needs caused by rising load expected from data centers in the Dominion and APS transmission zones. (See “Load Forecast for Northern Virginia Data Centers Continues to Climb,” PJM PC/TEAC Briefs: Jan. 10, 2023.)

Solutions should be expandable and scalable to allow them to address future expansion beyond the 2027/28 delivery year should the data center load growth continue, as is expected. The constraints in the 2027/28 baseline include the 230-kV substations serving local load into points of delivery and regional constraints primarily being seen on the 500-kV system importing energy into the region. They should also address any new violations created by the proposal itself to be considered.