PJM Board Approves $11.8B Transmission Expansion Plan

PJM approves $11.8B in transmission projects. Dominion lands $4.8B Virginia HVDC line for data centers; NextEra-Exelon wins $1.7B Pennsylvania project amid cost concerns.

The PJM Interconnection board has approved $11.8 billion in baseline transmission projects as part of its 2025 Regional Transmission Expansion Plan, a sweeping effort to bolster grid reliability across the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest amid explosive load growth from data centers and generation shifts.

Dominion Energy Virginia landed the largest award, approximately $4.8 billion, to construct a 525-kV high-voltage direct current underground transmission line stretching 185 miles from Brunswick County to a converter station ending at Loudoun County's Mosby substation. The project, which includes two converter stations costing about $1.5 billion, will deliver 3,000 MW into northern Virginia the world's largest data center market and is slated for completion by June 2032. Costs will be shared across PJM's footprint.

A $1.7 billion, 221-mile 765-kV transmission line across central Pennsylvania, proposed by NextEra Energy Transmission and Exelon, was also approved despite opposition from Pennsylvania's Office of Consumer Advocate. The OCA argued the project could become the "poster child" for overbuilding given uncertain data center demand forecasts and suggested cheaper alternatives exist. The companies countered that PJM's own analyses demonstrate new high-voltage backbone infrastructure is essential for reliability in the northeastern region, with the project expected online by June 2031.

Additional approvals include a $1.1 billion project in central Ohio by Grid Growth Ventures involving 300 miles of 765-kV lines, $580 million in projects by PPL Electric, and combined $568 million for Exelon subsidiaries. The plan addresses new generation in southern Virginia, future western PJM generation, offshore wind delays, and increased regional flows eastward. PJM emphasized proactive planning is necessary given lengthy siting and construction timelines.