PJM introduced the Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI) to stakeholders in October 2024 and filed the proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), receiving Commission approval in January 2025. PJM cited “a pressing need to address resource concerns”1 as the basis for the RRI, stating that it is “designed to address significant near-term resource adequacy concerns in PJM.”2 The organization has previously warned that a capacity shortfall could emerge as early as the 2026/2027 delivery year.3
Implementation of the RRI began with an application window that ran from February 28 to March 14. PJM received 94 submissions, including both uprates and new generation projects. Because the program is capped at 51 projects, PJM applied a scoring system to evaluate and rank the applications, ultimately selecting the top 51 based on certain criteria. The table below outlines PJM’s eligibility requirements and scoring methodology. For more details, see PJM Presentation, February 2025.
After evaluating all submissions, PJM selected 51 projects that will add a total of 11.7 GW of new energy capacity to the regional grid. These projects will move forward as part of Transition Cluster 2 and will be studied together with others in the group, sharing the costs of necessary transmission upgrades. Most of the selected capacity comes from natural gas projects. The table below shows a breakdown of the selected projects by state and fuel type.
While many of the selected projects are upgrades to existing facilities, the list also includes six new natural gas plants totaling 6,098 MW. A single nuclear unit—Three Mile Island—was selected for 803 MW, along with several smaller nuclear uprates. Notably, 2,275 MW of energy storage projects were also approved, which is a positive step toward a more resilient grid and one that MAREC supports.
However, nearly 5,700 MW of proposed storage projects were not selected—including 1,120 MW located in Maryland, one of PJM’s most constrained areas. (No storage projects were proposed in New Jersey.) During the stakeholder process, concerns were raised that PJM’s scoring criteria placed too much emphasis on capacity (55 out of 100 points for Unforced Capacity and Effective Load Carrying Capacity) and too little on geographic need (just 10 points). Despite this feedback, PJM did not adjust the weightings—likely contributing to the rejection of many strategically valuable projects in high-need zones like Maryland.
Another factor that received minimal weighting was a project’s in-service date—just 10 points—despite the RRI’s stated goal of addressing near-term reliability risks. PJM presented an overview of the selected RRI projects at its May Planning Committee meeting, including the chart below showing their expected online dates. For more information, please see PJM Presentation, May 2025.
Most of the selected capacity won’t come online until 2030 or 2031—and that’s only if projects stay on schedule. Transition Cluster 2 (TC2) already includes 43.6 GW4 of capacity in the PJM queue, so it’s unclear how adding 11.7 GW of new projects—many of which won’t be online any sooner than what’s already in the pipeline—meaningfully addresses the near-term reliability concerns that RRI was intended to solve.
Transmission constraints and the steep cost of network upgrades needed to solve them are major barriers preventing projects from coming online. Roughly half of the projects in Transition Cluster 1 withdrew after being faced with billion-dollar upgrade cost estimates. FERC Order 1920 includes a specific directive for regional grid operators to incorporate qualifying network upgrades into their Order 1000 regional transmission expansion plans. For PJM, this means beginning to include certain interconnection-related upgrades in its Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP). We strongly urge PJM to implement this reform immediately and ensure that critical interconnection-driven upgrades are included in the next RTEP cycle—accelerating the delivery of much-needed generation to the grid.