PJM Interconnection’s first interconnection “cycle” under its revamped, clustered review process has attracted 811 new generation projects representing roughly 220 GW of nameplate capacity. The effort now moves to a validation phase, under which the grid operator will confirm that applicants have met baseline technical and financial requirements—including site control and readiness commitments—before advancing qualified projects into clustered system impact studies.
In its April 29 announcement, PJM said the Cycle 1 intake was led by 349 standalone storage projects and 157 natural gas plants, with 142 solar projects, 65 wind projects, 45 solar‑plus‑storage hybrids, 27 nuclear units, 15 “other” resources, and 11 hydro projects. On a capacity basis, that represents 105.8 GW of gas power, 66.5 GW of storage, 17.9 GW of nuclear, 14.8 GW of solar, 8.9 GW of solar‑storage hybrids, 4.7 GW of wind, about 150 MW of hydro, and 500 MW of “other” capacity, which PJM said includes biomass, coal, methane, and, for the first time, fusion projects.
Unlike the serial, first‑come approach PJM has used for decades—which allowed large volumes of speculative projects to accumulate and slowed studies for years—this first Cycle intake represents the initial application window under a reformed interconnection process launched in July 2023 to speed reviews and prioritize projects most likely to get built. Projects in the Cycle will be evaluated under a first‑ready, first‑served framework designed to screen for readiness early and prevent unviable megawatts from clogging the queue, PJM has said. But perhaps more significantly, “with the start of this Cycle, all generation seeking to connect to the PJM grid is now being processed,” it said.
“PJM and our stakeholders have created a process that gets as many projects approved as quickly and safely as possible,” Interim President and CEO David Mills said in announcing the results. “These numbers represent significant interest from developers resulting from strong market signals, and our reformed process is designed to prioritize viable projects that can move to construction and operations with greater speed and certainty.”
A Stacked Queue, By Design
For PJM Interconnection, Cycle 1 marks the first real‑world test of a reform package it began rolling out in July 2023 to clear a congested interconnection queue and focus staff time on projects most likely to get built.
Part of the market operator’s challenge is rooted in urgency, stemming from soaring load growth. “Between 2024 and 2030, PJM expects electricity demand to increase by more than 30 GW, driven largely by data centers,” it noted on Wednesday. “Demand growth is outpacing the addition of new supply, risking reliability and making the timely interconnection of new resources critical to keeping the lights on for 67 million people in 13 states and the District of Columbia.”
PJM says that since 2020 it has processed more than 300 GW of proposed generation through its interconnection studies, producing about 103 GW of signed interconnection agreements. However, as Jason Connell, PJM’s vice president of Planning, noted in a blog post in March, of the 103 GW, only 23 GW of new generation went into service. “Another 54 GW have cleared PJM’s process and require nothing from PJM to build, but many are delayed. Developers point to permitting issues as their greatest obstacle,” he wrote.
To clear that amount of generation, PJM processed 294 GW of projects. “That means that 74% of all projects studied by PJM in that time withdrew at some point, including 26 GW of projects that had signed interconnection agreements.” It illustrates, as he explained, that “PJM’s interconnection process is not standing in the way of generation development, and the focus should be on clearing real hurdles to construction, as some states have done with permitting timelines.”
The new Cycle process evolved from PJM stakeholder recommendations in 2020 to improve the interconnection process, and which they “overwhelmingly” supported in 2021. In 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved PJM’s proposal to shift its generator interconnection procedures from a serial, first‑come, first‑served queue to a clustered, “first‑ready, first‑served” study process with three phased studies, decision points, and stronger readiness requirements intended to clear the backlog and weed out speculative projects. The transition to the first‑ready, first‑served model began in earnest in 2023, and by 2024, PJM says roughly 26 GW had been processed through an expedited Fast Lane for lower‑impact projects, while about 140 GW was processed from July 2023 to December 2024 under the transition rules.
In 2025, meanwhile, PJM selected 51 shovel‑ready generation projects totaling more than 9,300 MW of reliable capacity through a one‑time Reliability Resource Initiative—a fast‑track measure designed to pull the most advanced projects through studies ahead of the new Cycle process and get them online by 2030 or 2031.
By June 2025, as an interconnection progress fact sheet shows, PJM had processed roughly 140 GW of “transition” projects after shifting to the first‑ready, first‑served framework, cutting the remaining transition queue to about 63 GW scheduled to be completed in 2025–2026 and setting expectations that new projects will move through studies in roughly one to two years.
Under the Cycle process, “the speculative or less‑viable projects that took up valuable queue space, indicated by the large number of withdrawn projects, have been addressed by the rules of the new process,” Connell noted. “These rules require developers to meet certain progressive milestones to remain in the study process. This should result in projects with a higher likelihood of achieving commercial operation, and PJM will continue to work with developers to make sure their agreement milestones are met.”
PJM on Wednesday confirmed that attribute continues. “PJM is working with stakeholders in the public and private sectors to help projects get built once they clear PJM’s process and to manage the reliable integration of data centers while new generation resources are being developed,” it said. “Projects will be reviewed in the Cycle in what is designed to be a one‑ to two‑year process, depending on the impact of an individual project.”
The first Cycle’s results have so far been encouraging. The volume of applications “reflects strong developer interest and growing electricity demand across the PJM region, driven by data centers, advanced manufacturing, and broader electrification trends,” the grid operator noted.
“We are encouraged by the diversity of generation types that are seeking to join the PJM generation fleet,” said Mills. “That includes first‑time innovative technologies such as small nuclear reactors and fusion, more storage projects than any other technology, a resurgence in natural gas, and continued strong participation by renewables and hybrids. This is good news because we need all the generation we can get.”
The next stage will entail validation, during which PJM will confirm which projects have submitted the required technical and financial information to move forward. Once validation is complete, Cycle 1 will move onto a tight, three‑phase study clock that runs into 2028.
PJM’s Cycle 1 timeline shows a 91‑day application‑review period running from April 28 through July 27, 2026, followed by model posting on June 26 and the start of Phase I studies on July 28. Phase I—a 120‑day cluster assessment focused on high‑level system impacts and indicative upgrade needs—runs through Nov. 24, with a first “decision point” at the end of November where developers either post additional security and stay in the cluster or withdraw before costs and commitments escalate.
Projects that remain in the cluster will then enter Phase II, a 180‑day detailed system impact analysis now slated from Jan. 28 through July 26, 2027, with a second decision point at the end of July. Phase III, an 181‑day facilities‑level study window, is scheduled to run from Aug. 26, 2027, through Feb. 22, 2028, before a final decision point in February.
In tandem, PJM says it is trying to squeeze more capacity out of the existing grid. Beyond the new timelines FERC has approved for the Cycle process, PJM is working “on numerous fronts” to accelerate studies, Connell said. PJM has already taken a series of actions to speed shovel‑ready projects, including streamlined transfers of Capacity Interconnection Rights from retiring units to replacements at the same site, expanded surplus interconnection service so storage and other resources can use unused headroom at existing plants, and broader provisional interconnection service that lets some generators begin injecting energy before long‑term upgrades are finished, alongside interim programs such as the Expedited Interconnection Track and the one‑time Reliability Resource Initiative targeting roughly 8–9 GW of near‑term capacity.
AI in the Queue
To keep Cycle 1 moving on its compressed timeline, PJM said it is leaning on advanced tools and pathways implemented in recent years, including HyperQ, an AI‑enabled document‑review and interconnection “intelligence” platform developed by Google’s grid software spin‑out Tapestry.
As POWER reported in detail in April 2025, PJM launched a multiyear partnership with Google and the Alphabet moonshot Tapestry to streamline PJM’s grid interconnection process using artificial intelligence (AI) tools. At the time, Tapestry General Manager Page Crahan described the initiative as a “first-of-its-kind” strategy aimed at consolidating and contextualizing grid data. “We think about creating the world’s first knowledge graph for the electric grid,” she said, much like Google did when it organized the internet.
Tapestry has described HyperQ as an “agentic AI” system that ingests large volumes of interconnection data, rapidly parses complex application materials, and surfaces issues for planners rather than acting as a chatbot. A key goal is to “free” engineers from “combing through thousands of pages looking for evidence. It’s our hope that the tool may also help establish a fully consistent standard for application readiness across reviewers, without requiring them to undergo intensive training or cross‑check with others,” a white paper says.
HyperQ essentially acts as a batch “triage” layer for the queue, the white paper explains. As it ingests complete interconnection applications—often hundreds or thousands of pages including contracts, appendices, parcel maps, and technical data—it decomposes the readiness review into discrete checks that AI agents can run in parallel. The system then assembles those checks into an application‑readiness report that flags where key tariff requirements appear to be addressed and points reviewers to the specific clauses, signatures, parcel references, and figures that support each assessment. By clustering related land‑rights documents into a single agreement bundle and using retrieval‑style prompts so each agent only sees the most relevant tariff and application text, HyperQ is designed to cut down on missed details and inconsistent interpretations across reviewers, while still leaving final legal and engineering judgment with PJM staff.
“Interconnection is a complex, often misunderstood challenge,” noted Crahan in a LinkedIn post on April 29. “To ensure projects can connect safely and reliably to the grid, every application must undergo rigorous analysis—which is made even more difficult by the skyrocketing volume of requests. In the multi-step application review process, one of the very first tasks is validating ‘site control’ information, which requires experts to pore over a virtual mountain of data to confirm that developers have legal rights to the land they intend to build on. Historically, this meant manually hunting through thousands of pages of disparate—and dense—legal documents and property records.”
HyperQ automates these data-heavy tasks, she explained. And in the process, and especially for Cycle 1, “we’re empowering PJM’s staff to focus their time on high-value technical analysis. It’s a real-world example of how AI can help address today’s grid planning challenges.”
PJM and Tapestry engineers describe how HyperQ processes interconnection applications in batch, drawing bounding boxes on key legal and technical elements and returning a readiness assessment that previously required weeks of manual review. Source: Tapestry/LinkedIn
On Wednesday, PJM said HyperQ has helped its review of “large volumes of application data more quickly and efficiently.” The tool has also helped “assess sections of documents for further review.” The grid operator “expects the efficiencies offered by HyperQ to reduce study times and will be evaluating the tool’s impact throughout Cycle 1,” it said.
—Sonal C. Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
