PJM and its Transmission Owners won federal regulators’ conditional approval for their plan to integrate multi-driver projects into the regional transmission expansion plan (RTEP).

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Feb. 20 ruling (ER14-2864, ER14-2867) requires PJM to revise its Tariff to include the criteria it will use to determine whether and how to divide a multi-driver project that combines two or more proposed projects and two or more transmission developers.

The commission also ordered PJM to clarify its definition of multi-driver projects. PJM proposed to define such projects as “a transmission enhancement or expansion that addresses more than one of the following: reliability violations, economic constraints or public policy requirements.”

FERC said the definition “might be read to include reliability or economic transmission projects that also address public policy requirements for which PJM planned during the assumptions stage of the RTEP process,” which would conflict with PJM’s Order 1000 compliance filing.

PJM said the multi-driver concept could lower the cost of states’ public policy transmission projects by incorporating them in upgrades that address market efficiency or reliability.

FERC initially responded to the RTO’s filing with a deficiency notice asking for additional information on definitions, processes and cost allocation. (See PJM, TOs Respond to Deficiency Notice on Multi-Driver Projects.)