Central Electric Power Cooperative, the Columbia-based wholesale power provider for electric cooperatives, has joined PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization headquartered in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
Central will use PJM’s support in its power supply planning, one of numerous services PJM offers. PJM also provides power supply itself and coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in 13 states and the District of Columbia.
Central, however, uses power purchase agreements (PPAs) to aggregate the electricity supply it sells to the state’s 20 electric cooperatives, so Central has no immediate plans to become a power purchaser through PJM.
The cooperative does not own or operate power plants, though it does own generators that supply power during peak demand periods as well as some community solar installations and is adding more solar energy to its electricity mix.
PJM is the largest regional transmission organization (RTO) in the nation and manages the high-voltage electricity grid ensuring service reliability for more than 65 million people.
Central’s focus will be on PJM’s planning capabilities, which can help utilities identify grid improvements that benefit all participants. As the power supply aggregator for member-owned cooperatives, Central’s power purchase agreements (PPAs) can extend over decades and are planned years in advance.
“Our relationship with PJM is new, but there’s nothing new about our long-term planning,” said Robert C. Hochstetler, Central’s president and CEO. “As we plan, we consider least cost, reliability and diversification of our portfolio, and PJM’s geographic footprint and generating capacity offer benefits other than power supply for Central.”
Central’s largest PPAs include contracts with Duke Energy Carolinas and Santee Cooper.
PJM membership allows Central to request feasibility studies of exporting electricity generating capacity (megawatts) and energy (megawatt-hours) from the PJM pool. In its Market Participant category of membership, however, Central’s interest will be purely contractual, not operational, in nature.
More specifically, Central and its 20 member cooperatives benefit from the relationship in four ways:
- Access to more detailed market intelligence and price information
- Greater context from the standpoint of changes to the power business
- Better understanding of how renewable generation fits into power supply resource portfolios
- Greater understanding as to advantages of an RTO.
“We don’t intend to commit system resources into PJM, meaning we won’t be integrating our transmission system with theirs,” said Hochstetler.”
Central’s contract with Duke Energy Carolinas for about 1,000 megawatts (MW) ends in 2030. The Santee Cooper arrangement goes to 2058. Discussions are already underway with Duke regarding its contract. As Central seeks a more diversified portfolio, discussions with several providers, not excluding Duke, would be expected.
PJM, founded in 1927, was named for its early service area in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, but now has more than 1,000 members and more than 180,000 megawatts of generating capacity.
Central Electric Power Cooperative provides wholesale electric service to South Carolina’s 20 electricity distribution cooperatives. Together, the independent, not-for-profit cooperatives supply power to almost 1.5 million South Carolinians through 800,000 residential and business memberships. The members, who are the consumers, own the utilities.