PJM announced a multiyear collaboration agreement with Google and Tapestry, with the aim of further streamlining the grid operator’s planning process for connecting new generation resources.
The goal is to significantly cut processing times for reviewing new interconnection applications, allowing large volumes of requests to be processed quickly. Officials have specifically warned about threats to reliability and future potential capacity shortfalls in PJM’s service area of 13 states and Washington, D.C. These concerns have been further exacerbated by skyrocketing load growth projections, driven largely by the expansion of data centers and broader adoption of electric vehicles.
Under this collaboration, Tapestry, the self-described “moonshot for the electrical grid” project, will work with PJM to develop and deploy a new set of AI-enhanced tools and models to manage and optimize PJM’s generation interconnection process. The initiative will be powered by Google Cloud and Google DeepMind, Alphabet’s artificial intelligence research lab.
PJM said it was looking at AI to help improve planning tools to further expedite PJM’s processing of generation resources that will be needed to meet demand in future years.
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“Innovation will be critical to meeting the demands on the future grid, and we’re leveraging some of the world’s best capabilities with these cutting-edge tools to further reduce completion times for New Service Requests,” said Aftab Khan, PJM’s Executive Vice President – Operations, Planning & Security.
This collaboration with Google and Tapestry is in addition to other efforts to automate its interconnection planning, a project that began in 2023.
The grid operator also recently announced that its own initiative aimed at fast-tracking interconnection for generation projects has attracted 94 applications, totaling 26.6 GW of capacity. The Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI) is designed to expedite connecting shovel-ready, high-reliability projects to the grid in PJM territory, which has seen critical retirements of dispatchable generation.
PJM last month said the proposed projects represent new build and uprates of nuclear and natural gas, as well as new battery storage. The grid operator will now use a FERC-approved rating process to select up to 50 projects. The proposals will be scored based on “market impact criteria,” which includes their contribution to reliability and the viability of their commercial operation dates.
Concerns about the electricity supply-demand gap in PJM territory reached a fever pitch after the grid operator’s capacity auction last July. Electricity prices jumped over 800 percent, going from $29 per megawatt day to $270. Insufficient future transmission planning, the retirement of fossil-fired generation, long interconnection queues and the implementation of FERC market reforms have all been factors in the price hikes.
Since the beginning of last year, PJM said 1,100 MW of existing generation has chosen to remain as resources in PJM after previously submitting a notice to retire.
The grid operator has been supportive of efforts to redevelop new units or restart existing units at the sites of former generating facilities. Examples include the proposal to convert the former coal-fired Homer City Generating Station in Pennsylvania to a new natural gas-fired facility. Similarly, a proposal to reactivate the former Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station (Unit 1) in Pennsylvania would contribute more than 800 new MW to the grid.
Originally published in Factor This Power Engineering.
