PJM’s footprint is about to grow again with the addition of the 16-member East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC). The Members Committee was briefed Feb. 28 on PJM’s takeover of reliability coordination and transmission operations for the generation and transmission cooperative effective June 1.

East Kentucky, which joined PJM as an Other Supplier in 2005, estimates it will save almost $132 million over the next decade by taking advantage of PJM’s economies of scale and generation diversity.

‘Uneventful’ Integration Expected

A winter-peaking system (2,500 MW), East Kentucky will increase PJM’s generation capacity by 2.5% and transmission network by 4%. Frank Koza, PJM’s executive director of operations support, told members on a conference call yesterday he expects the integration to be
“uneventful.”

The coop’s move to PJM was approved by the Kentucky Public Service Commission in December and still requires OKs from the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, according to coop spokesman Nick Comer.

East Kentucky has filed requests with FERC to participate in the PJM Reliability Pricing Model Base Residual Auction for 2016-17 (ER13-414-000) and to submit an out-of-time Fixed Resource Requirement Plan (ER13-478-000).

The Members Committee will be asked Thursday to ratify the coop’s entry with changes to the PJM OATT, Operating Agreement, Reliability Assurance Agreement and Transmission Owners Agreement. PJM expects to file the revisions with FERC in March.