LS Power, a development, investment, and operating company focused on power generation, electric transmission, and energy infrastructure, recently applied to construct roughly 700 megawatts (MW) of new generation supply as part of PJM Interconnection’s Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI), including in Pennsylvania.
The total investment value of LS Power’s proposed RRI capacity additions is more than $1 billion, according to Nathan Hanson, president of LS Power Generation.
“With surging demand across the region, LS Power is answering the call for more dispatchable generation to support reliability and resource adequacy, and at a cost less than greenfield new build,” Hanson said on March 14.
PJM’s RRI is designed to expedite connecting shovel-ready, high-reliability projects to the grid, and the regional transmission organization initiated the RRI process due to the increasing urgency to connect new generating resources in the near term, according to LS Power.
The proliferation of high-demand data centers and electrification has resulted in significant forecasted load growth for the foreseeable future, necessitating the need for additional new supply.
LS Power said its proposed projects can be online faster than larger, greenfield projects, helping to meet the urgency of the reliability imperative. The company’s proposals include converting two peaking facilities in Pennsylvania and Ohio to base-load combined cycle plants, along with uprates at other existing facilities in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The two conversion projects — one at the Troy facility in Ohio, the other at the Armstrong facility in Pennsylvania — would add about 600 MW through the addition of a steam cycle at each facility, and other upgrades.
At the same time, capacity uprates at LS Power’s Doswell, Va., and Pennsylvania sites in Hummel and Hunterstown would add approximately 100 MW, said the company.
PJM has announced it will select up to 50 projects from all types of resources as part of the RRI process. The proposals will be scored based on “market impact criteria,” which includes their contribution to reliability and the viability of their commercial operation dates.
“Our proposed capacity projects are well positioned to meet the requirements of PJM’s RRI and help ensure electric reliability,” Hanson said.