PJM Launches Update to Planning Tool To Visually Assess Potential Impacts of New Generation on the Grid - PJM Inside Lines
PJM Launches Update to Planning Tool To Visually Assess Potential Impacts of New Generation on the Grid | PJM Inside Lines
PJM has launched an update to its public Queue Scope planning tool that lets users visually evaluate the potential impacts of new generation on the power grid.
The original version of Queue Scope, first made available in December 2022, relied on a tabular format to display information. The new version is now integrated with the PJM system map, meaning that users can now visualize how a generator impacts congestion on lines, as well as the potential transmission upgrades that would be needed to interconnect a project.
Queue Scope, which is part of PJM’s Planning Center tool, allows prospective generation developers or other users to assess the location of future generators before they formally enter PJM’s interconnection queue. Using PJM’s Regional Transmission Expansion Plan and interconnection queue studies, the tool analyzes the impacts on the PJM system based on the amount of megawatts that would be added to the system at a chosen point of interconnection.
Queue Scope is designed to allow developers to better assess the viability of their potential projects before entering PJM’s interconnection process. The public version of Queue Scope can also be accessed without a PJM.com account, allowing any user to see the potential impacts of adding generation to the system.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.