The board of managers for Pennsylvania-based PJM Interconnection, in February 2025, approved a set of about $5.9 billion in transmission projects across Indiana, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, and Maryland, to bolster reliability across the grid operator’s footprint. PJM is part of the Eastern Interconnection and serves most of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, as well as parts of Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, plus the District of Columbia.
These projects should be in service by 2029, and are in the early stages of development and do not have a firm timeframe yet for permitting, regulatory approvals, and construction. In the next steps, the companies will develop project details, including assessing routes and conducting environmental studies.
The projects were picked through the regional transmission expansion plan (RTEP) process, through which PJM accepts submissions for projects to address specific transmission needs before choosing the best ones after a review procedure. The plan includes a $4.6 billion, 765 kV regional transmission backbone to be built by American Electric Power (AEP), Dominion Energy, and FirstEnergy.
REGlobal’s Views: The pace of renewable energy project deployments in the United States has been slowed down by grid connectivity issues. Transmission projects have not grown at the same pace as renewable energy projects and this has hampered project development activities. These projects will help to meet the increasing power demand for electricity and facilitate new generation resources.
