CAPS Pushes for More Transmission Upgrade Data
VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — State advocates would like to see more details when supplemental transmission projects are proposed to the Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee (TEAC), Greg Poulos, executive director of the Consumer Advocates of the PJM States (CAPS), said in a presentation to the committee on Tuesday.
The data currently provided by transmission owners tends to be inconsistent and lacking enough information to allow for proposal of alternatives, Poulos said.
“I’d like to get that information in a way that’s most efficient” for transmission owners and advocates, he said.
In particular, he pushed for a breakdown of project costs beyond an overall estimate; increased clarity about whether a project falls under state jurisdiction; and the inclusion of contact information for a TO’s relevant planning staff.
He also argued that the long period of time between the presentation of a need and a proposed solution suggests the timeframe for submitting alternatives could be lengthened. Currently, comments and alternatives must be submitted within 10 days, which Poulos said is inadequate if there are follow-up questions about a proposed project or for a prospective developer to evaluate a need and create a solution.
Tom Schmidt, principal planning engineer at Buckeye Power, said alternative proposals are welcome, especially when expensive repairs are needed, but they’re not always feasible for a variety of reasons, such as when equipment fails. He noted that TOs provide a spectrum of information on projects, often providing a large amount of documentation.
“Some have plenty of details to support their spending and others it seems a little bit lighter,” he said.
No Plan to Extend Accreditation Uprate Study Application Deadline
PJM’s Pauline Foley told the committee that the RTO does not plan to lengthen the application period for generators to seek temporarily higher accreditation while PJM transitions to the modified effective load-carrying capability (ELCC) methodology FERC approved last week. The studies allow an existing or planned generator that is re-entering the transmission queue in order to increase its capacity interconnection rights to undergo annual transitory studies to determine if it can temporarily increase its capacity rating by utilizing existing transmission headroom. (See FERC Approves Revisions to PJM’s ELCC Accreditation Model.)
In its order accepting the ELCC changes, the commission recommended that PJM consider leaving applications open longer should it seek a delay to the 2025/26 Base Residual Auction, currently scheduled for June 2023. PJM filed with FERC to make that delay on April 11. (See PJM Seeks to Delay Capacity Auctions Through 2028 Delivery Year.)
Protests against the ELCC filing argued that PJM’s original intention of setting applications to close on March 3 violated noticing requirements under the Federal Power Act and left insufficient time for generators to make complicated decisions about unit accreditation. In a dissent, Commissioner Allison Clements agreed with those concerns and said the majority’s decision to allow applications through April 10 was also insufficient.
Foley told the PC that extending the application period would not conform to stakeholders’ intentions when they endorsed the filing’s language.
Reliability Analysis Update
Dominion (NYSE:D) proposed a $7.7 million upgrade to address a 300-MW load drop violation in the 2027 Regional Transmission Expansion Plan around the area of Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
The upgrade would cut the existing Brambleton-Poland Road 230-kV line and create a new 0.59-mile-long, double circuit 230-kV line between the Brambleton and Evergreen Mills substations. Both original substations would remain connected.
