VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — PJM planners have selected 11 small market efficiency projects and narrowed the list of proposals for its biggest congestion problem to 12 candidates.

The 11 projects — all transmission owner upgrades — have a combined cost of $59.2 million, with a benefit-cost ratio of 15.6 and estimated 2019 congestion reductions totaling $50 million. The PJM Board of Managers is expected to consider planners’ recommendations of the projects at their meeting in October.

“These are all locational type projects … they’re cheap fixes basically,” PJM’s Tim Horger told the Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee on Thursday. Over 15 years, “you’re going to see hundreds of millions” in savings.

The 12 proposed fixes for the AP South/AEP-DOM constraints will undergo further analysis, including an initial cost review and sensitivity analyses for changes in load forecasts, fuel prices and interface ratings.

About 20 of the larger proposals passed the 1.25 benefit-cost threshold. The 12 finalists are those that continued to meet the 1.25 threshold using a base case incorporating the 11 small projects and also reduce congestion for combined 2019 and 2022 simulations with minimum production costs and load payment savings of $20 million.

They range in cost from $15.7 million to $300.7 million.

Vice President of Planning Steve Herling said it was possible — though unlikely — that the AP South/AEP-DOM fixes could displace one or more of the 11 smaller local projects. “We’ll pull one of [the smaller projects] out of there if we have to,” he said.

Sharon Segner of LS Power questioned PJM’s method of winnowing the list, saying the RTO’s Tariff requires such projects be based only on the zone seeing reduced load payments.

“When you have multiple projects that all pass, the Tariff doesn’t tell us how to decide [among them],” Herling responded. “We’re having to use our judgment.”

Segner said PJM had told stakeholders that selections would be made based on the highest cost-benefit ratios. “That’s what motivates the market,” she said. “Otherwise it becomes pretty subjective and loosey-goosey.”

In total, PJM received 93 market efficiency proposals, including 35 transmission owner upgrades ranging from $100,000 to $68 million and 58 greenfield projects with costs of $9.2 million to $432.5 million.

Second Proposal Window Opens

PJM opened a second transmission proposal window Aug. 5, seeking solutions to 2020 transmission owner criteria violations and reliability problems identified from planners’ light load analysis. The RTO will accept proposals through Sept. 4.

No Projects Arise from ARR Review

The annual review of auction revenue rights feasibility resulted in no transmission upgrade projects, planners said. Already-approved upgrades were identified for violations on most of the 45 paths analyzed over the 10-year horizon. Three paths in the ATSI zone that saw violations in years nine and 10 will be monitored for potential upgrades in the future.

PJM: Despite Lack of Cost Allocation Rules, MISO Project Too Good to Ignore

PJM doesn’t know how it would allocate costs from its share of a potential transmission upgrade MISO is considering in southern Indiana, but the project’s potential to fix longstanding stability problems at American Electric Power’s Rockport substation is too compelling to ignore, planners said.

MISO officials said earlier this month that they are reevaluating the $67.2 million Duff-Coleman 345-kV project after learning of PJM’s interest in an alternative — a $76.3 million 345-kV Rockport-Coleman line — that could also fix the Rockport substation. (See MISO Plan to Revisit Runner-Up Tx Project Rekindles Stakeholder Angst.)

“The challenge is this is a market efficiency project in MISO and a reliability project in PJM” — a combination for which there are no cost allocation rules in the PJM-MISO joint operating agreement, Herling said. “This is just such a good opportunity we don’t want to let it go by.”

The area has added thousands of megawatts of generation but no new transmission since 1989. As a result, the Rockport substation has operated under a special protection scheme involving relays, and tripping and ramping down of generators. About 4,400 MW of generation was tripped in a 2007 incident.

PJM will have to move quickly; MISO planners intend to recommend the winning project to the MISO Board of Directors in December.

Initial results of PJM’s analysis are expected in time for MISO’s Aug. 19 Planning Advisory Committee meeting.

“It could be a win-win,” said PJM’s Chuck Liebold.

Planners Reevaluating Pratts Project

PJM is reconsidering its selection of the Gordonsville-Pratts-Remington transmission upgrade after learning that it will require 15 to 18 miles of new right of way, far more than initially believed.

In February, planners recommended the proposal from Dominion Resources and FirstEnergy at an estimated cost of $129 million to $164 million.

“We want to double check to make sure we’re doing the right project,” said General Manager of System Planning Paul McGlynn, who said planners will evaluate a Gordonsville-Remington route among the alternatives.

The Virginia State Corporation Commission, which would have to approve the project, says that existing rights of way should be given priority as the locations for transmission additions.

A representative for Madison County, Va., urged PJM to reject the original plan. He said the scale of the project is out of proportion to the rural county — population 13,000 — which is dependent solely on farming and tourism and has no public water or sewers. “That’s the question — the need versus what’s being proposed,” he said.

McGlynn noted, however, that the project is not being driven solely by load in the Pratts area.

PJM solicited solutions in its second Order 1000 proposal window last year.

Four developers suggested 16 proposals, including two transmission owner upgrades and 14 greenfield projects. Only six of the proposals were judged to have solved the violations. Two losing bidders, ITC Holdings and LS Power’s Northeast Transmission Development, have challenged the choice in letters to the PJM board. (See Tx Developers Challenge PJM Choice on Pratts Project.)

Planners will reevaluate the options in September and make a recommendation to the board in October.

— Rich Heidorn Jr.