Planning Committee

Stakeholders Endorse Quick Fix to Include Batteries in Planning Models

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — The PJM Planning Committee on March 10 endorsed by acclamation a quick-fix proposal to include battery storage dispatch in the RTO’s planning models.

The revisions to Manual 14B: PJM Region Transmission Planning Process would model storage availability by season to reflect the longer duration of winter events. Batteries are currently modeled as offline in the Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP) base cases, but they are included in generation deliverability studies.

In presenting the second read of the proposal, Lead Engineer Julia Spatafore said including storage in the RTEP analysis would increase the resources available for transmission reliability, as well as better align regional planning with state policies and the determination of network upgrades for projects in the interconnection queue.

When modeling the system for the summer, the battery availability would be set at the lesser of its effective nameplate capacity (ENC) or the ENC multiplied by the resource’s duration, then dividing that value by 4 and multiplying the quotient by the fleet effective equivalent demand forced outage rate. The 4 in the equation represents the expected duration of summer events; for the winter, it would be replaced with an 8.

Director of Transmission Planning Sami Abdulsalam told RTO Insider that the reliability challenges presented by summer events tend to center around a single peak, while in the winter they tend to span the period between the morning and evening peaks.

He told the committee the change is a “kick start” to the RTO’s effort to use batteries for reliability.

Paul Sotkiewicz, president of E-Cubed Policy Associates, argued the change is too significant to proceed under the quick-fix process, which allows an issue charge, problem statement and proposed solution to be voted on together.

PJM intends to seek endorsement from the Markets and Reliability Committee at its meeting April 22. If approved, the changes would be implemented immediately.

Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee

Supplemental Projects

UGI Utilities presented a $94 million project to serve a 200-MW customer seeking to come online adjacent to the Hunlock Creek substation in Pennsylvania in 2027.

The customer would initially interconnect with 100 MW to be served by upgrades to the 66-kV bus at the Mountain substation. The second half of the load would come online in 2029 following the construction of a 230/66-kV substation named Newport, which would cut into the 230-kV Susquehanna-T10 line and connect to a switching station to serve the customer with two 66-kV lines. The project is in the engineering phase with a projected in-service date of Sept. 30, 2029.

UGI canceled a $33 million project to serve a 384-MW customer near Nanticoke, Pa., because the customer canceled the project. The upgrades would have included constructing a 230-kV substation, which would have cut into two 230-kV lines between Mountain and Susquehanna.

PPL presented four new service requests to serve large loads in Pennsylvania, each exceeding 1 GW. The requests seek to:

• • bring a 200-MW load to Washingtonville in 2028 and ramp to 1,500 MW by 2032;
  • site a 100-MW load in Archbald in 2028 and ramp to 1,200 MW by 2033;
  • construct a 75-MW load in Berwick in 2028 and grow to 1,500 MW by 2033; and
  • develop a 60-MW load in Nescopeck in 2028 and ramp to 1,350 MW by 2032.

PPL’s Robin Lafayette said direct connection costs, such as new substation equipment and lines to serve the new load, are currently fully allocated to the customer, while the costs of upgrades to existing facilities are assigned to the transmission zone in which the load is located.

Dominion Energy presented a $115 million project to address a 300-MW load drop violation identified in a 2029 do-no-harm analysis. The project would tear down and rebuild the 19-mile, 230-kV lines between the Gordonsville, Louisa CT, South Anna, Desper and Foxbrook Lane substations in Virginia. A parallel line would be constructed connecting Gordonsville directly to the Wesbey Drive substation, bypassing the other substations. The project is in the planning phase with a projected in-service date of March 1, 2029.

The utility also presented a $26 million project to serve a 300-MW customer in Ashland, Va. A 230-kV substation would be installed on the 230-kV Four Rivers-Hanover line, with about a half-mile of new line required.

Exelon presented a pair of $44 million projects to rebuild two 230-kV lines between the Plymouth Meeting and Whitpain substations in the PECO zone. The conductor on the 5.12-mile lines is about 65 years old, and the tower bolts and paint coatings are 95. The projects are in the engineering phase with one expected to be complete in July 2029 and the other in December 2029.

An additional $54 million project in the PECO zone would replace the 98-year-old Buxmont-Whitpain line. It’s in the engineering phase with a projected in-service date of Dec. 31, 2028.

The utility also presented a need to address limited operational flexibility around transmission outages because of a single 500/230-kV transformer bank being in place at the Limerick substation.

Finally, Exelon presented a $41.5 million project to serve a new service request in the ComEd zone. The customer is expected to bring about 30 MW to the Minooka, Ill., area in June 2028, which could grow to 588 MW by 2036. The project would construct a 345-kV substation, named Wildy Road, with two 345-kV lines to the Kendall County E.C. facility. Five double-circuit lines would feed the customer. The project is in the conceptual phase with a projected in-service date of July 1, 2027.