Planning Committee
Stakeholders Discuss Expanding CIR Transfer Issue Charge
VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — PJM’s Planning Committee is considering a change to an issue charge framing a discussion on how capacity interconnection rights (CIRs) can be transferred from a retiring generator to a planned resource in the interconnection queue.
The issue charge modification, brought by the East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC), would allow consideration of solutions that would include planned resources sited at a different, but electrically equivalent, point of interconnection (POI) from the original generator by striking a paragraph designating such solutions as out of scope. The issue charge was proposed by EKPC and Elevate Renewables and approved by the PC on June 6. (See “Stakeholders Endorse Discussion on Deactivating Generators’ CIRs,” PJM PC/TEAC Briefs: June 6, 2023.)
Denise Foster Cronin, EKPC’s vice president of federal and RTO regulatory affairs, said ongoing discussion at the Interconnection Process Subcommittee revealed the issue charge could prevent solutions permitting CIR transfer to a planned resource whose POI is on a different breaker, but which is otherwise electrically the same. She said the cooperative’s intent in bringing the issue charge was to ease the process of passing CIRs onto a new resource that would have minimal impacts to the grid, but that the current language ignores the realities of the grid.
Several stakeholders said just removing the out-of-scope language would open the door to market participants creating their own interpretations of what an electrically equivalent POI could be.
Vitol’s Jason Barker said the proposed issue charge edits would result in unbounded solution options for CIR transfers, rather than solutions that permit swift transfers at the same, or electrically equivalent, POI as originally intended. He questioned PJM about how it determines electrical equivalence in assessing CIR transfers, to which PJM said it does not have a standard measure.
Barker expressed concern that, in the absence of agreement on the definition of electrical equivalence, eliminating consideration of expedited CIR transfers only at the same tariff-defined POI could impede the most competitive solutions.
Independent Market Monitor Joe Bowring said a core focus should be on ensuring competition in the transmission grid and not providing undue access.
Bowring also pointed out that: “The proposal would undermine the newly revised PJM queue process by creating a bilateral queue process that could override the PJM process. CIRs are not a property right. Retiring units should not retain CIRs after the day of retirement. CIRs have value as a result of the upgrades to the transmission system paid for by all transmission customers. In addition, the proposers have failed to address whether they would even agree to offer the replacement resources into the capacity market as renewable resources and storage do not have the same must offer obligation as thermal resources.”
Paul Sotkiewicz, president of E-Cubed Policy Associates, responded that CIRs are property rights that have been paid for by the generation owner seeking to transfer them.
Asked how PJM would define “electrically equivalent,” the RTO’s Jason Connell said the meaning has not been determined and that should be left up to stakeholders, either through the issue charge or packages to come out of it.
Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee
PJM Preparing 2 Competitive Transmission Windows in July
PJM is shifting its timeline for running the first competitive window for the 2024 Regional Transmission Expansion Plan and the second round of transmission projects to deliver 3,742 MW of New Jersey offshore wind through the State Agreement Approach (SAA). PJM had planned to open both simultaneously during the first week of July, but Director of Transmission Planning Sami Abdulsalam said the RTO now is targeting the middle of the month and will have a gap of a few days between opening them. (See NJ Opens 2nd State Agreement Approach to Connect OSW with PJM.)
During recent TEAC meetings, stakeholders suggested that staggering the two windows would allow proposals submitted in the second window to be informed by the projects PJM selected in the first and would avoid straining transmission owner resources in forming proposals for two concurrent solicitations.
PJM closed the second competitive window for the 2023 RTEP on April 5 and will post window statistics by the April 30 TEAC meeting. The window sought proposals to address concentrated load growth around Columbus, Ohio, thermal violations in the PSEG transmission zone around the Hinchmans substation and the 500-kV Fentress-Yadkin line in the Dominion zone nearing its end of life. The window was shortened to 30 days due to the urgency of the thermal violations in PSEG.
Supplemental Projects
FirstEnergy presented an $18.7 million project to replace a 500/138-kV transformer at its Bedington substation in the APS transmission zone. The unit is about 47 years old and experiencing increasing maintenance issues, the utility said. The project is in the pre-engineering phase with an expected in-service date of Dec. 31, 2027.
Inspections of three FirstEnergy 345-kV lines in the ATSI transmission zone found deteriorating wood and steel structures, as well as insulators approaching their end of life. The 19-mile Niles-Shenango line has experienced two unscheduled outages due to failed equipment since 2015, the Beaver Valley-Hanna line has had one outage and the Hanna-Mansfield line had two unscheduled outages over that period. The condition of the lines was presented as a future need.
PPL presented a $244 million project to build a new 500-kV substation, named Bernheisel, to serve a 1,275-MW customer service request in New Kingston, Pa. The project would cut the proposed substation into the Juniata-Three Mile Island 500-kV line, rebuilding the 13.3-mile segment between the new facility and the Juniata substation in the process. The Bernheisel site would include four 500/138-kV transformers, two 138-kV capacitors, a six-bay 138-kV yard and six 138-kV lines. The new load is expected to come online in March 2026 at 40 MW, ramping up to 1 GW in 2030.
Dominion presented a $23 million project to construct a new 230-kV substation, named Edsall, to serve a data center complex with load exceeding 100 MW in Fairfax County, Va. The new facility would be connected to the Van Dorn substation by two existing 230-kV lines between Van Dorn and the Ox and Hayfield substations. The data centers have an expected in-service date of Oct. 1, 2027.
