The PJM Board of Managers has authorized changes to existing projects in the Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP) as well as transmission system improvements to help provide the most efficient, economical and reliable supply of power for the 67 million people PJM serves across 13 states and the District of Columbia.

Approved Nov. 18 were several scope and cost changes to previously approved baseline projects, one project cancellation and baseline projects consisting of various substation equipment upgrades supporting and paid for by new generation resources.

New Services Queue

Throughout 2025, PJM has continued to study New Service Requests. These studies evaluate the impact of the New Service Request and include an evaluation of new generation interconnections, increases in generation at existing stations, long-term firm transmission service requests and merchant transmission interconnection requests.

These studies were last reviewed with the Board Reliability and Security Committee in February of 2025. Since that time, PJM has completed 398 System Impact Studies, and 522 New Service Requests have withdrawn. New projects with signed Interconnection Service Agreements (ISAs), project scope changes and project cancellations have resulted in a net increase of $604.4 million for network upgrades. A map of the projects with recently completed studies and list of associated network upgrades is included in the detailed requests from the Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee (PDF).

Deactivation of Buchanan Units 1 and 2

Baseline project b3333 is driven by the deactivation of Buchanan units 1 and 2. The owners of the Buchanan units withdrew their original deactivation request in June 2023. The units' owners later notified PJM in March 2025 of their desire to deactivate and deactivated the units as of July 2025.

Due to the delay in the deactivation timeline, the original planned new substation land from the 2023 studies is no longer available. The facility has to be moved to a new location 2.6 miles away, which has resulted in a scope modification for the project.

This scope change results in the cost estimate increasing from $40.2 million to $106.6 million, or a net increase of $66.4 million.

Bergen Spare Equipment

The original baseline project scope for b3869 was to remove/retire the two Bergen 138 kV series reactors and relocate the Bergen generator No. 1 Point of Interconnection from Bergen 138 kV to Bergen 345 kV GIS through the existing 345/138 kV transformer. PSE&G's FERC Form 715 criteria did not allow it to buy a spare reactor, which is why the original scope was recommended.

However, PSE&G has since changed its FERC Form 715 criteria to allow for the purchase of the spare reactor. The new scope is to replace the two Bergen 138 kV series reactors with two new 138 kV series reactors.

The project scope change results in the cost estimate increasing from $12.5 million to $12.8 million, or a net increase of $0.3 million.

Circuit Breaker Replacement Cancellation

The baseline project to replace circuit breaker Q2 at the Broadford 765 kV substation is being canceled. There was a rating error in the study for the breaker, and with the corrected rating, the breaker replacement is no longer required.

This scope reduction results in a net decrease of $4.5 million.

Scope and cost changes to these projects yield an overall RTEP net decrease of approximately $78.4 million to resolve baseline criteria violations, which the PJM Board approved.

Transource Project 9A

Project 9A is a market efficiency-driven project that was suspended in 2021. The project has both east and west components, and since being placed in suspension, a number of other RTEP projects have been approved and constructed. Some of these projects occupy the same physical location or rights-of-way as the 9A-East project.

PJM's most recent reevaluation of Project 9A showed that it continues to exceed the 1.25 benefit/cost threshold. Of the three scenarios studied, the scenario with the highest benefit/cost ratio and least cost was the 9A-West-only scenario. In July 2025, PJM obtained Board approval to modify the scope of Transource Project 9A to retain the western portion and remove the eastern portion of the project, terminate the project's suspended status and restore the western portion of the project.

The scope reduction of removing Project 9A-East reduces the project cost from $322 million to $179 million, or approximately $143 million.

How PJM Plans for the Future

PJM's RTEP analysis identifies system violations to reliability criteria and standards, determines the potential to improve the market efficiency and operational performance of the system, and incorporates any public policy requirements. PJM then develops transmission system enhancements to be integrated into a regional solution set and reviews them with stakeholders through the TEAC before submitting its recommendations to the Board.

Follow all projects through the process on PJM's Project Status & Cost Allocation page.

Full details (PDF) of the projects are posted on PJM.com. Find out more about PJM's role in regional planning with our FAQ (PDF).