New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities is looking for potential transmission solutions to deliver offshore wind energy to the power grid as the state rolls out its plan to deploy 7,500 MW of OSW by 2035.

The BPU on April 15 opened a 120-day window for developers to submit suggestions for improving or adding to four stages of the energy transmission process, in what the state sees as an unusual approach that taps into the expertise of PJM. The regional transmission organization will manage the solicitation process.

The four parts are:

• upgrades to the existing grid to allow for integration of wind energy,
• extension of the onshore grid to bring it closer to offshore wind generators,
• ways to reduce environmental impacts at the intersection of the offshore lines and land, and
• interconnections between offshore substations to create an offshore grid or “backbone.”

The competitive solicitation strategy is the result of New Jersey’s use of the “state agreement approach,” under which the BPU requested that PJM integrate the state’s OSW goals into the RTO’s Regional Transmission Expansion Plan process. New Jersey was the first state do so since the approach was approved by FERC under Order 1000. (See NJ Asks PJM to Seek Bids for OSW Tx).

“New Jersey is the first and only state to utilize this approach with PJM, and we are pleased to see it moving forward smoothly,” BPU President Joseph Fiordaliso said. “Through this process, we are leveraging PJM’s transmission planning expertise to ensure we achieve our offshore wind goals in an economically efficient, environmentally sensitive and timely manner.”

Array of Options

The solicitation process will enable BPU Staff to “evaluate a wide array of ready-to-build transmission options that otherwise may not have been available at this stage of offshore wind development,” according to the BPU’s release.

All solicitations must be received by Aug. 13, at which point the BPU will determine whether any of the proposals, or a combination of them, meet the state’s policy goals for OSW development. If the agency concludes that none do, it can terminate the process at any time without picking any of the bidders.

The opening of the solicitation comes as New Jersey moves forward with the first two of several expected OSW projects. The first project, awarded by the BPU in June 2019, will be Ørsted’s 1,100-MW Ocean Wind project, which is the focus of public hearings the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is holding this month. The BPU opened a second project solicitation, for projects between 1,200 and 2,400 MW, in September and expects to announce the winning bids in June.

For these initial two projects, the BPU required developers to include plans for transmission and connection to PJM in their proposals and to include the cost of the state’s Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Certificate (OREC) funding mechanism. Under the mechanism, New Jersey power suppliers agree in advance to buy ORECs, tradeable certificates linked to the amount of wind power the developer expects the project to generate.