The complaint comes amid long-running concerns that utilities in regional transmission organizations like PJM are focusing their transmission investments on so-called supplemental projects that receive less scrutiny and are eligible for formula rates, which are approved by FERC outside a more rigorous rate case.
Supplemental projects are transmission expansions or enhancements that “address local reliability needs, such as customer service and load growth, equipment condition, operational performance and risk, and infrastructure resilience,” according to a summary of PJM’s regional transmission expansion plan process. The grid operator evaluates them to make sure they do not hurt grid reliability.
