The PJM Interconnection board approved $5.9 billion in new transmission projects to bolster reliability across the grid operator’s footprint, PJM said Wednesday. That, combined with changes to the scope and cost of existing projects, mean PJM’s latest Regional Transmission Expansion Plan is set to cost $6.7 billion, according to the grid operator for 13 mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states and the District of Columbia.

The Regional Transmission Expansion Plan, approved Tuesday, contains a modified version of a proposal to build a 765-kV, multistate transmission backbone offered by American Electric Power, Dominion Energy Virginia and FirstEnergy. This roughly $4.6 billion set of projects, which includes 500-kV facilities, aims to bolster west-east regional power transfers, according to PJM staff analysis of its recommended plan.

The plan calls for the companies to build 260 miles of 765-kV transmission line between Putnam County, West Virginia, and Frederick County, Maryland, and a roughly 155-mile, 765-kV transmission line between Campbell County, Virginia, and Fauquier County, Virginia, according to AEP.

AEP estimates that its share of the projects its Transource transmission subsidiary will build will cost $1.1 billion. PJM’s plan also includes about $600 million in projects AEP utilities will build in Indiana, Ohio and Virginia.

“The proposals resolve critical west-east regional transfer reinforcement needs by introducing 765 kV transmission lines connecting the AEP system in the western portion of the PJM footprint with the rest of the network in the central and southern parts of PJM, primarily Virginia,” the grid operator said in a press release.

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