The companies assigned to build one of the components of PJM Interconnection's project B3800 have made an absolute mess of the public's understanding of the project. Congratulations, NextEra and FirstEnergy! This is all your fault!
PJM doesn't invent and assign cutsie-poo names like MARL or Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek to the projects it approves and orders. It gives them numbers. B3800 was assigned to this project when it was approved in December 2023. Names like MARL and Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek are inventions of the companies that PJM assigns to build the projects it orders. Different names do NOT mean different PJM projects. They're all B3800.
Here's the only thing you need to know about MARL and Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek.
PJM doesn't invent and assign cutsie-poo names like MARL or Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek to the projects it approves and orders. It gives them numbers. B3800 was assigned to this project when it was approved in December 2023. Names like MARL and Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek are inventions of the companies that PJM assigns to build the projects it orders. Different names do NOT mean different PJM projects. They're all B3800.
Here's the only thing you need to know about MARL and Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek.
A picture is worth a thousand words, right? If you study this one, you'll figure it out, despite the stupid stuff NextEra and FirstEnergy are saying right now. Block all their nonsense out of your mind. This is one continuous 500kV transmission line. It's all connected, just like a gigantic extension cord. Pay attention to the key on this map. There is a table called "Transmission System Enhancement" that lists the different color-coded line segments and the companies that PJM assigned to build each segment of this ONE 500kV line.
Starting at the top of the list is a dark pink/purply segment assigned to AEP. AEP stands for American Electric Power, who owns a section of existing 500kV line between the Kammer substation and the 502 Junction substation. AEP's part of this project was to study its existing line to assure it could pump more power from Kammer. Kammer is the name of the substation at AEP's Mitchell Power Generation station in Marshall County, WV. AEP is not building a new line here (at least not in this project).
Next the table lists yellow for Dom. That stands for Dominion. Dominion is the Virginia-based utility that will be building the last 3 miles of this 500kV circuit from Edwards Ferry to Goose Creek in Loudoun County, Virginia. It's really impossible to see the yellow part of this map because it's tiny compared to the rest of the line's mileage. Just know it's there, at the eastern end of the line.
Then we have red for Exelon. Exelon owns a short segment of existing line and easement in Montgomery County, Maryland that would be reconfigured to change a corridor containing one 500kV line and two 230kV lines into a corridor that contains three 500kV lines and two 230kV lines. One of those new 500kV lines in Maryland is part of B3800, the continuous 500kV line from 502 Junction to Goose Creek. You can barely see the red if you look hard.
And now we're getting to the real meat here... blue and peach. The blue part of the line is owned by FirstEnergy (FE) subsidiary Potomac Edison. The FE part of the line begins at a point in Frederick County, Virginia where the NextEra part ends and runs east through Jefferson County, WV, Loudoun County, VA, and Frederick and Montgomery Counties, MD to a point at Edwards Ferry where Dominion picks up the construction of the 500kV circuit. The blue part of the line is approximately 45 miles long. The blue part of the line plans to tear down an existing 138kV circuit on 65 ft. tall towers and replace it with double circuit 500/138kV lines on a new tower 185 ft. tall. FirstEnergy named this part Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek.
And last, but certainly not least, the peachy colored part of the line that is assigned to NextEra. This 105-mile long segment begins at 502 Junction substation and ends at a point in Frederick County, Virginia were FirstEnergy's segment of the project begins. We're literally talking about two adjacent transmission towers carrying one continuous 500kV circuit, except one tower is owned by NextEra, and the other is owned by FirstEnergy. These are not two separate projects physically. The separation only exists in legal documents and the balance sheets of competitors NextEra and FirstEnergy. NextEra named its peach MARL.
To put the parts of the map in order from west to east: dark pink (AEP), peach (NextEra), blue (FirstEnergy), red (Exelon), more blue (FirstEnergy), and then yellow (Dominion), which connects to a substation that serves Loudoun County's data centers.
PJM approved and ordered ONE 500kV circuit between 502 Junction and Goose Creek and then assigned the project to 3 different companies to build. Each company has made up its own name for its segment. NextEra calls its 105-mile portion of the project MARL. FirstEnergy calls its 45-mile portion of the project Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek. Dominion has not come up with a name for its 3 mile section in Virginia because it has not presented the project to the public yet.
This confusion about who owns what and what the project is called and what connects to what can be flung directly on the door step of NextEra and FirstEnergy.
NextEra has been playing pretend games that its 105-mile segment of PJM's 500kV circuit is a separate project not connected to anything else. NextEra says it begins in PA and ends in Frederick County, Virginia. The media has added the narrative that MARL connects with "a data center in Frederick County, Virginia" which is just false. There are no significant data centers in Frederick County. All the data centers are in Loudoun County. Loudoun and Frederick are not even contiguous counties. Jefferson County, WV sits between them. We need some basic geography here!
NextEra may have created this false narrative in the press because it thought that it could escape any bad data center juju being attached to its project. Didn't work. We all know MARL is a data center extension cord. All that narrative did was confuse the heck out of people when Jefferson County popped into the picture on Monday when FirstEnergy filed a Notice of Intent at the PSC.
FirstEnergy, for its part, contributed to this confusion by refusing to name its project, or to do any public relations about it until just recently (and still its attempts can be called anemic at best). The citizens of Jefferson County have been fighting FirstEnergy's part of PJM's 500kV circuit for 2 years now. Because FirstEnergy refused to acknowledge the project, we named it for them, and we called it MARL, adopting NextEra's name for this 150-mile long 500kV circuit.
So, when FirstEnergy's Potomac Edison filed its Notice of Intent at the PSC, it said the project was "also referred to as MARL". That is absolutely 100% true.
And the media circus began. The stories pumped out don't even make sense, and the confusion becomes deeper and deeper. Take a deep breath... just look at the map!
Starting at the top of the list is a dark pink/purply segment assigned to AEP. AEP stands for American Electric Power, who owns a section of existing 500kV line between the Kammer substation and the 502 Junction substation. AEP's part of this project was to study its existing line to assure it could pump more power from Kammer. Kammer is the name of the substation at AEP's Mitchell Power Generation station in Marshall County, WV. AEP is not building a new line here (at least not in this project).
Next the table lists yellow for Dom. That stands for Dominion. Dominion is the Virginia-based utility that will be building the last 3 miles of this 500kV circuit from Edwards Ferry to Goose Creek in Loudoun County, Virginia. It's really impossible to see the yellow part of this map because it's tiny compared to the rest of the line's mileage. Just know it's there, at the eastern end of the line.
Then we have red for Exelon. Exelon owns a short segment of existing line and easement in Montgomery County, Maryland that would be reconfigured to change a corridor containing one 500kV line and two 230kV lines into a corridor that contains three 500kV lines and two 230kV lines. One of those new 500kV lines in Maryland is part of B3800, the continuous 500kV line from 502 Junction to Goose Creek. You can barely see the red if you look hard.
And now we're getting to the real meat here... blue and peach. The blue part of the line is owned by FirstEnergy (FE) subsidiary Potomac Edison. The FE part of the line begins at a point in Frederick County, Virginia where the NextEra part ends and runs east through Jefferson County, WV, Loudoun County, VA, and Frederick and Montgomery Counties, MD to a point at Edwards Ferry where Dominion picks up the construction of the 500kV circuit. The blue part of the line is approximately 45 miles long. The blue part of the line plans to tear down an existing 138kV circuit on 65 ft. tall towers and replace it with double circuit 500/138kV lines on a new tower 185 ft. tall. FirstEnergy named this part Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek.
And last, but certainly not least, the peachy colored part of the line that is assigned to NextEra. This 105-mile long segment begins at 502 Junction substation and ends at a point in Frederick County, Virginia were FirstEnergy's segment of the project begins. We're literally talking about two adjacent transmission towers carrying one continuous 500kV circuit, except one tower is owned by NextEra, and the other is owned by FirstEnergy. These are not two separate projects physically. The separation only exists in legal documents and the balance sheets of competitors NextEra and FirstEnergy. NextEra named its peach MARL.
To put the parts of the map in order from west to east: dark pink (AEP), peach (NextEra), blue (FirstEnergy), red (Exelon), more blue (FirstEnergy), and then yellow (Dominion), which connects to a substation that serves Loudoun County's data centers.
PJM approved and ordered ONE 500kV circuit between 502 Junction and Goose Creek and then assigned the project to 3 different companies to build. Each company has made up its own name for its segment. NextEra calls its 105-mile portion of the project MARL. FirstEnergy calls its 45-mile portion of the project Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek. Dominion has not come up with a name for its 3 mile section in Virginia because it has not presented the project to the public yet.
This confusion about who owns what and what the project is called and what connects to what can be flung directly on the door step of NextEra and FirstEnergy.
NextEra has been playing pretend games that its 105-mile segment of PJM's 500kV circuit is a separate project not connected to anything else. NextEra says it begins in PA and ends in Frederick County, Virginia. The media has added the narrative that MARL connects with "a data center in Frederick County, Virginia" which is just false. There are no significant data centers in Frederick County. All the data centers are in Loudoun County. Loudoun and Frederick are not even contiguous counties. Jefferson County, WV sits between them. We need some basic geography here!
NextEra may have created this false narrative in the press because it thought that it could escape any bad data center juju being attached to its project. Didn't work. We all know MARL is a data center extension cord. All that narrative did was confuse the heck out of people when Jefferson County popped into the picture on Monday when FirstEnergy filed a Notice of Intent at the PSC.
FirstEnergy, for its part, contributed to this confusion by refusing to name its project, or to do any public relations about it until just recently (and still its attempts can be called anemic at best). The citizens of Jefferson County have been fighting FirstEnergy's part of PJM's 500kV circuit for 2 years now. Because FirstEnergy refused to acknowledge the project, we named it for them, and we called it MARL, adopting NextEra's name for this 150-mile long 500kV circuit.
So, when FirstEnergy's Potomac Edison filed its Notice of Intent at the PSC, it said the project was "also referred to as MARL". That is absolutely 100% true.
And the media circus began. The stories pumped out don't even make sense, and the confusion becomes deeper and deeper. Take a deep breath... just look at the map!
I'm guessing that NextEra got its corporate panties in a wad yesterday because FirstEnergy had used their MARL name in their Notice of Intent at the PSC. FirstEnergy tried to issue a retraction yesterday. This confused things even more.
And, using my best mom voice, here's some advice that NextEra and FirstEnergy should take to heart.
GET OVER YOURSELF, KIDS!
Stop your bickering and squabbling and not wanting to be associated with each other. It's going to come back and bite you in the butt at the PSC.
The PSC will have two separate applications for two different segments of the same transmission line. Are the companies going to keep pretending they have nothing to do with each other before the PSC? That's going to be a little uncomfortable for PJM's witness, won't it? You'll never get away with it. And it would serve you right if the PSC denied one of these segments because they didn't know the other was connected to it.
FIX THIS MESS!
GET OVER YOURSELF, KIDS!
Stop your bickering and squabbling and not wanting to be associated with each other. It's going to come back and bite you in the butt at the PSC.
The PSC will have two separate applications for two different segments of the same transmission line. Are the companies going to keep pretending they have nothing to do with each other before the PSC? That's going to be a little uncomfortable for PJM's witness, won't it? You'll never get away with it. And it would serve you right if the PSC denied one of these segments because they didn't know the other was connected to it.
FIX THIS MESS!
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