Four out of five Reliability Must-Run generation units in the ATSI zone will shut down this year rather than 2015, PJM told the Planning Committee Thursday.

East Lake 1-3 and Lake Shore 18 will be retired Sept. 15, thanks to transmission upgrades in the area that will help maintain reliability in ATSI. Ashtabula 5, however, will maintain generation for the next 16 months.

Lake Shore 18 unit, which was originally slated to be converted to a synchronous condenser at a cost of $20 million, was scrapped in favor of a $34.7 million SVC project due for completion in June 2015. Paul McGlynn, general manager of system planning, said the SVC project should prove more economical when including maintenance costs for the synchronous condenser.

American Transmission Systems, Inc. provides the bulk of its transmission services in northern Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania.