New Jersey Offshore Wind Prebuild Infrastructure Solicitation

In the midst of the New Jersey Board of Public Utility's ("Board") analysis of offshore wind ("OSW") transmission options to optimally enable the State's OSW goals and minimize costs and risks to ratepayers, Board Staff continued to explore regulatory avenues to pursue the stated goals of the Board. Notably, these goals include increasing competition, reducing environmental impacts, reducing permitting/land acquisition requirements, and coordinating access to Points of Interconnection ("POI"). The Board's first State Agreement Approach, SAA 1.0, conducted in close coordination with PJM Interconnection, LLC. ("PJM"), represented an initial step in furtherance of these goals, creating significant cost savings by attracting a wide range of innovative proposals and resulting in an efficient design of an integrated transmission system for delivering OSW to New Jersey customers.

As part of the SAA 1.0 project awards, the Board described the benefits of the Prebuild, which is the infrastructure between the identified landing point at Sea Girt National Guard Training Center ("NGTC") and the POI with the PJM high-voltage electric grid, the Larrabee Collector Station, enabling 3,742 MW of OSW generation needed to reach the then-current goal of 7,500 MW of OSW by 2035 to be connected to the grid. The Board explained that the Prebuild envisioned a single construction effort to install the necessary Duct Banks and associated access Cable Vaults to house transmission Conduits for future use of up to four (4) OSW Qualified Projects, thereby enabling these projects to access the wholesale transmission system. The SAA 1.0 Award Order contemplates the Prebuild being procured as part of the Third Solicitation. However, the Third Solicitation Guidance Document ("Solicitation 3 Guidance Document") noted that the potential remained for the SAA to be modified to include the Prebuild.

After this Prebuild Solicitation is conducted by the Board, the Board will submit any awarded Project to PJM for incorporation into the RTEP. The Board will also submit the awarded Project for cost recovery through the cost allocation provisions for Public Policy Projects, approved by FERC, agreed to by the Board, and ultimately recovered from ratepayers through a FERC-approved transmission rate design. The successful Project will therefore become a baseline Public Policy Project included in PJM's RTEP.

The scope of the Prebuild includes all Cable Vaults, Duct Banks, and related facilities for four (4) separate Qualified Projects, enabling Qualified Project developers to install their cables into the Prebuild by pulling them through the completed Prebuild Infrastructure facilities. The Prebuild spans from the Cable Vaults at the Point of Demarcation beside the LCS, covering all Cable Vaults and Duct Banks up to the Transition Vaults set to be built and installed at Sea Girt. It continues beyond the Transition Vaults through Horizontal Directional Drilling boreholes, reaching offshore to specified locations enabling future use of the four (4) Qualified Projects.

Bidders will use this website to access information about the solicitation, including the controlling documents, and ask questions of the BPU.