New Jersey's Largest Utility To Spend $6.8B Through 2018 On Transmission Upgrades

Birmingham, AL - Public Service Electric & Gas, New Jersey's largest utility, plans to spend $6.8B through 2018 on transmission projects, most of which have been ordered by the PJM Interconnection to relieve projected overloads and maintain reliability.

The only project for which there are now details is the recently approved $1.2B Bergen-Linden line that expected to be completed in June 2018, Kim Hanemann, vice president of delivery and construction said during a conference call Friday with analysts.

The project includes 13 miles of double circuit 345-kV to replace existing 138-kV and 23 miles of new underground 345-kV line. It also includes seven miles of underground transmission that will be upgraded from 138 kV to 345 kV.

The project will run from Linden north through Elizabeth, Jersey City and North Bergen to Ridgefield.

The utility still has about $1.3B to complete five major grid projects that scheduled to come online in this year and next.

PSE&G is projecting demand by its 2.2 million customers will rise by an annual rate of 1.1%.

The utility's transmission investments account for about 70% of the company's planned capital investments during the next five years.

PSE&G's $10B five-year capital plan represents a 20% increase over the utility's budget for the last five years, Ralph Izzo, chairman and CEO of Public Service Enterprise Group, PSE&G's parent, said during Friday's call.

PSEG expects an additional 130 MW from an upgrade at the 2,251-MW Peach Bottom nuclear plant will be in service in 2015 or 2016, William Levis, president and COO of PSEG Power, told analysts.

The generation subsidiary also expects to bring an additional 150 MW gas-fired generation online in the next five years. The largest increase will be 63 MW at the 1,576-MW Linden plant, which will be completed this year, Levis said. The additional 31 MW at the 1,204-MW Bergen plant will be online in 2015 and the additional 58 MW at the 757-MW Bethlehem Energy Center in New York is expected to be online in 2017-2018, he said.