PJM and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities are in discussions on how the transmission and interconnection facilities planned for the state’s offshore wind aspirations can be put on ice in the wake of all the generation developers pulling out of their projects.

The Department of Energy has withdrawn a $716 million loan commitment that would have helped New Jersey upgrade the state transmission system to connect offshore wind to the grid.

States can reap long-term savings by upgrading their onshore grids and coordinating transmission development to serve multiple offshore wind projects, but they’ll also face higher upfront costs, supply chain challenges and ratepayer concerns, speakers at a New Jersey conference said.

FERC Order 1920 eventually may provide a structure for long-term, interregional transmission planning, but its anticipated yearslong implementation could mean states will have to lead in planning nearer-term transmission needs, according to a report from the American Council on Renewable Energy and The Brattle Group.

Debating the impact of FERC's Rule 1920, Abe Silverman of Johns Hopkins told states to "codify, codify, codify" their energy policy goals and policies to ensure PJM has to take them into account in compliance.

With data centers, electric vehicles and population growth, electricity demand in New Jersey could soar to 15,000 GWh in the coming years, state officials said at a public hearing on a new plan for connecting offshore wind projects to the grid.

PJM stakeholders received updates on the RTO's plan for long-range transmission planning and utilities' supplemental projects to deal with growing data center load.

The ultimate future of FERC Order 1920 depends on rehearing, implementation and inevitable litigation, but after reading through the order itself in the past week, many stakeholders see it as an important step forward in expanding the grid.