Jeanne Jones
Analyst · Julien Dumoulin-Smith from Jefferies LLC
Yes. I think at a high level, right, you’re going to see that trend continue, the increasing need for more transmission investment. I think there’s at least 3-themes there, probably several more, but there is just core work across our jurisdictions that we need to do for reliability, resiliency. We talked about and Calvin reiterated, right, that even in the Delmarva project we just talked about, the system needs to be modernized against the increasingly volatile weather. So whether it’s wood to steel poles, elevating substations for flooding, making sure they can withstand hurricane Category four winds, all of that. Security is becoming increasingly important for substations. So that’s just or work across our four operating companies, we know we have to do. And that’s continuing to increase. I would say a second key theme is the changing generation mix. You’ve got retirements. We talked about the Indian River RMR today. That transmission was to replace that and save our customers’ money. Brand insurers is another one. And so you’ve got retiring generation, which needs to have investment in transmission to accommodate that. But then you’ve got new generation. When you look at the Mid-Atlantic, right, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, you add up the goals in the states there, you’re looking at maybe 20-gigawatts of offshore wind. We’re not going to build that offshore wind, but we will build the transmission to support that new generation and we’re excited about that, right? We all know we need more generation, and we need all types of generation. So that’s another key theme, the changing generation mix and then, of course, right, the theme of new load. When we updated that capital plan that I mentioned, the $3 billion, 90% of it was transmission, $700 million was in ComEd, right? And ComEd is where we are increasingly seeing that data center growth. You heard Calvin talk about going from 6-gigawatts of high probability to 11-gigawatts just this year alone. The work we need to do to accommodate that high-density load continues, not only in ComEd, but across PJM, right? Last year, we talked about the $1 billion for the ARTECH window three, are related to Northern Virginia data centers. So I think that increasingly becomes a trend. What’s not in our plan, you mentioned PJM’s window one this year. We think there’s opportunity there, probably more in the couple of hundred million size. But then outside of PJM, MISO is doing its tranche two. That is another potential opportunity for us that’s not in the plan. There are pieces of the solutions that cross in our territory, and MISO has indicated willingness to work with PJM operators. So I think no shortage of opportunities, a lot of strong themes, which just kind of continue to build that momentum for more investments. And what we love about them is often those investments help save our customer money when you think about the alternatives.