West Virginia Senate Energy Committee hears updates on PJM transmission grid battles | WV News

“PJM Interconnection is the network designer and operator for 13 states and the District of Columbia,” Haque began, noting that all of West Virginia is within their service area. “We operate at the so-called bulk power system level.”

According to Haque, PJM is responsible for the generation and transmission of electricity in bulk, adding, “There is a need for an entity like us.”

“The mass flow system – effectively the grid – is a machine,” continued Haque. “In the United States, it’s actually three really big machines. You have the east link, you have the west link, and you have Texas. PJM exists within the Eastern Link.”

Haque explained that “Electrons know no state borders” and are “interstate by nature”.

“Hence the need for an entity to be effectively the planner and controller of those watts as they are transmitted to substations where they are then delivered to homes and businesses,” Haque said.

Haque further explained that PJM’s “backbone transmission system” consists of numerous substations and transmission lines strategically distributed throughout its service area. However, Haque added, “PJM does not own any of these transmission assets,” as First Energy (FE) and American Electric Power (AEP) retain ownership.

“We are a non-profit organization that has been given the authority to operate these assets collectively,” Haque noted. “Maintaining reliable power transmission over this backbone transmission system is PJM’s primary mission.”

Winter Storm Elliot, which brought record temperature drops to the region last month, posed unforeseen challenges for PJM. In anticipation of cold temperatures, Haque explained, PJM was “conservative” in its forecast for grid load utilization (126,968 megawatts) for Dec. 23. In fact, more than 155,750 megawatts were subsequently requested to meet load utilization requirements.

“Our load forecast for the 23rd was low,” said Haque. “And that is something we must own. But despite the forecast, we have the option to put more power into the grid if we’re worried – which we did.”

Although additional power was added to the grid, Haque noted, service outages peaked on December 24, when nearly 46,000 megawatts were not generated. PJM is conducting a full analysis of the situation and expects to have the results by April this year.

“If we hear that the grid is in bad shape and needs a lot of work, can you break that down for us?” Senator Randy Smith, R-Tucker, asked during Thursday’s meeting. “What makes the integrity of it bad?”

Haque said a common theme with network components is that they are “reaching the end of their useful lives” due to their age.

Next up before the committee was Gary Jack, Senior Corporate Counsel at First Energy Corp., who said, “First Energy has a primary presence in five states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and West Virginia – and they have about 6 million customers .”

“In West Virginia, we have about 555,000 customers in 40 counties and a few thousand employees,” noted Jack. “Last year our purchases of coal and reagents — that is lime and urea — totaled over half a billion dollars.”

According to Jack, First Energy operates two main power plants in West Virginia: Ft. Martin Power Plant in Maidsville and the Harrison Power Plant in Haywood.

“We also have a couple of PURPA (Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act) facilities,” Jack added. “They don’t belong to us, but we buy the electricity. And our latest facility is a pumped water project across the border in Virginia.”

Referring to the 46,000 megawatts lost during Winter Storm Elliot, Jack stated, “The main problem was gas plant underperformance, and it was due to equipment and fuel outages.” Jack added that forced outages resulted in 38 % of gas production, 17% of coal production and 11% of nuclear power production were unavailable.

“Gas was the problem,” Jack said.

The final speaker of the day, David Ball, vice president of utility operations at AEP (American Electric Power), told committee members: “We (AEP) are transmission owners, but we are also transmission operators for assets that operate below 200 kV (kilovolts). PJM is the transmission system operator for everything over 200 kV.”

“The conversations we’ve had up to this point have been about making sure we have enough power generation to meet the load demands,” Ball continued. “We need to have enough transmissions operational at all times to ensure that this generation can get from their location to the load centers.”

Ball explained that West Virginia has made “significant investments in recent years” to either replace inadequate transmission facilities or add new facilities to the network system. According to Ball, older plants are the biggest culprits when it comes to power generation failures.

“So what happened with this storm (Winter Storm Elliot) is that the AEP systems worked extremely well,” Ball said. “We didn’t have any transmission outages associated with the winter event. And on the generation side – we haven’t had any generation that has been shut down due to the cold that we own.”

“I think what you can see is that the AEP customers in West Virginia have benefited from the work that has gone into this system,” Ball added.

Senator David Stover, R-Wyoming, concluded Ball’s presentation, “It seems to me that part of the problem was that the weather turned out to be worse than forecast. So if I understand correctly you make a guess and let people prepare for a specific load. And it’s not that you exhausted what you had, it’s that suddenly it was more than you needed and you can’t just flip a switch and let that happen. Am I thinking correctly?”

“I think that’s a really good summary of what you heard today,” Ball replied.

After thanking the three speakers, Sen. Smith said, “We received a lot of good information and look forward to having you back with us in the future to try to address some of these issues before they become a disaster.” will.”