LS Power, a development, investment, and operating company focused on the North American power and energy infrastructure sector, on March 14 announced it has applied to build about 700 MW of new generation supply as part of PJM’s Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI), which is designed to expedite connecting shovel-ready, high-reliability projects to the grid.

“With surging demand across the region, LS Power is answering the call for more dispatchable generation to support reliability and resource adequacy, and at a cost less than greenfield new build,” said Nathan Hanson, president of LS Power Generation.

PJM initiated the RRI process due to the increasing urgency to connect new generating resources in the near term. The proliferation of high-demand data centers and electrification has resulted in significant forecasted load growth for the foreseeable future, necessitating the need for additional new supply.

LS Power’s proposed projects can be online faster than larger, greenfield projects, helping to meet the urgency of the reliability imperative.

LS Power’s proposals include converting two peaking facilities, in Pennsylvania and Ohio, to baseload combined-cycle plants, along with uprates at other existing facilities in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The two conversion projects, one at the Troy facility in Ohio, and the other at the Armstrong facility in Pennsylvania, would add approximately 600 MW through the addition of a steam cycle at each facility, and other upgrades, while capacity uprates at LS Power’s Doswell (Virginia), Hummel and Hunterstown (both Pennsylvania) would add approximately 100 MW. The total investment value of LS Power’s proposed RRI capacity additions is more than $1 billion.

PJM has announced it will select up to 50 projects from all types of resources as part of the RRI process. The proposals will be scored based on “market impact criteria,” which includes their contribution to reliability and the viability of their commercial operation dates.

“Our proposed capacity projects are well positioned to meet the requirements of PJM’s RRI and help ensure electric reliability,” Hanson said.

—POWER edited this content, which was contributed by LS Power’s communications team.