Chapter 81 The Arrogant PJM

The people from PJM arrived earlier than Mu Xin had expected. PJM had sent three people, saying they were coming to Oxford Town for an on-site inspection and, incidentally, to have a preliminary discussion with the project team.

Mu Xin had Jessica arrange the meeting at the Hueston Woods construction site; he wanted the PJM people to see for themselves that this project was not just talk on paper.

The agreed-upon time was 10:00 AM on Tuesday, and Mu Xin arrived at the construction site at 9:30 AM.

In the distance, tower cranes were slowly rotating, the roar of concrete mixer trucks came from every corner of the site, and workers wearing hard hats shuttled between the steel and concrete like a colony of tireless ants.

Robert ran over from the construction shed, holding two hard hats in his hands, and handed one to Mu Xin.

"Mr. Mu, the conference room you requested is ready."

"Thank you for your hard work." Mu Xin took the hard hat and put it on.

At 9:50 AM, a black SUV pulled into the temporary parking lot at the construction site.

The car doors opened, and three people stepped out.

Walking in front was a white male in his fifties, tall with graying hair, combed meticulously, wearing a dark blue suit.

His name was Paul Hamilton, a senior manager in PJM's Transmission Planning Department; this was the name Jessica had found out in advance.

Behind him followed a man and a woman. The man was in his early forties, wearing khaki cargo pants and a dark blue polo shirt with the PJM logo embroidered on the chest, carrying a black briefcase in his hand.

He looked like a technical person, with a look of the pickiness peculiar to engineers behind his glasses.

The woman was in her thirties, wearing a well-tailored gray suit skirt, with short blonde hair, exquisite makeup, holding a tablet computer, and had a serious expression.

Mu Xin stood at the entrance of the construction shed and did not go out to greet them.

He just stood there, his hands in his pockets, watching the three people walk towards him, treading on the gravel road.

Paul Hamilton walked up to him, looked him up and down, and extended his hand.

"Mr. Mu? Paul Hamilton, PJM Transmission Planning Department."

"These two are my colleagues, Mark Bennett, System Planning Engineer, and Laura Chen, Interconnection Service Coordinator."

Mu Xin shook his hand, "Welcome to Oxford Town, please come in."

He turned and walked into the construction shed without any pleasantries. Paul's eyebrows twitched slightly as he followed him inside.

The construction shed was cooler than outside, but the air was still filled with the smell of a mixture of cement and diesel.

After sitting down, Paul scanned the furnishings inside the shed, his gaze lingering on the construction data on the whiteboard for a few seconds before withdrawing and landing on Mu Xin.

He was not in a hurry to speak. Instead, he took a pair of glasses from his inner suit pocket and put them on, then pulled a stack of documents from his briefcase and flipped through them unhurriedly.

Mu Xin had seen this demeanor too many times; they weren't here to negotiate, they were here to pass judgment.

"Mr. Mu, we have reviewed your project." Paul finally spoke, his voice carrying a bureaucratic tone.

"A 120 million hotel, a 28 million Water Plant, plus the acquisition and expansion plan of the power company—your investment in Oxford Town is not small."

"So?" Mu Xin leaned back in his chair and looked at Paul.

"So you should be able to understand that PJM has strict approval standards for any newly built transmission facilities." Paul's tone was flat.

"This is not directed at you personally, but is for the responsibility of the entire system."

"A faulty interconnection plan could lead to large-scale power outages across thirteen states."

"No one can afford this risk."

"I understand." Mu Xin nodded, "That's why I invited you here, to talk in person."

Paul had a condescending, slightly mocking tolerance, like a university professor facing an undergraduate student who asked a stupid question.

"Mr. Mu, let me be honest with you." Paul took off his glasses, placed them on the table, and leaned forward slightly.

"Your project is ranked very low on PJM's priority list."

"How low?" Mu Xin asked.

"There are currently over 1,600 projects in PJM's interconnection queue, from generation projects to load projects, ranging from tens of megawatts to thousands of megawatts."

"Your project is a 20-megawatt substation; among these projects, regardless of scale or urgency, it doesn't even rank in the top 1,000."

Mark Bennett nodded in agreement from the side, as if to add a footnote to Paul's words.

Laura Chen was expressionless, just looking down and noting something on her tablet.

Mu Xin picked up the coffee on the table, took a sip, and set it down slowly.

"Mr. Hamilton, you just said that there are over 1,600 projects in your interconnection queue."

"I would like to ask a question: of these 1,600-plus projects, how many have completed all preliminary approvals, have funding in place, and are just waiting for interconnection?"

Paul was taken aback for a moment.

"Let me rephrase the question." Mu Xin's tone was unhurried. "Of these people in the queue, how many have signed formal interconnection agreements with PJM? Thirty percent? Twenty percent?"

"Mr. Mu, this is not a simple numerical question." Paul's brows furrowed slightly. "The situation for each project is different."

"I have checked for you." Mu Xin interrupted him, took a document from Jessica's hand, and pushed it in front of Paul.

"According to publicly available data on PJM's official website, as of last quarter, fewer than two hundred projects have signed formal interconnection agreements."

"The rest are mostly still in the needs assessment stage, and some haven't even submitted a complete preliminary application."

"You say my project doesn't rank in the top 1,000, but from another perspective, there are only one or two hundred projects that are truly ready for construction."

"My project has funding in place, design completed, and all state approvals passed. Among these one or two hundred projects, where does it rank?"

Paul did not speak. His expression did not change, but Mu Xin noticed his fingers tapping gently on the table twice.

This was a subtle signal; not nervousness, but discomfort.

"Mr. Mu, you've done quite a bit of homework." Paul's tone remained calm, but that condescending feeling had faded a little.

"That's only natural." Mu Xin smiled. "You just said your responsibility is to be responsible for the entire system."

"My responsibility is to be responsible for my project. We are all professionals; there's no need to beat around the bush."

"Very well." Paul nodded and pushed that document aside. "Then let's speak plainly."

"Mr. Mu, for your project to go through the normal RTEP process, it will take at least twenty-four months."

"This is a hard requirement, not something I can change alone. If you think that's too long, you can use the fast track, but the fast track also requires six to nine months."

"Moreover, the approval standards for the fast track are higher than the normal process. You need to prove that your project will not cause any negative impact on the power grid, and you must be willing to bear all the modification costs."

"I can accept all of these," Mu Xin said.

"But there is one more problem," Paul continued. "Your project is an isolated load growth, not a regional system requirement."

"According to PJM's cost allocation rules, most of the costs for this kind of 'local load service project' need to be borne by you yourself, and you also have to pay an annual interconnection service fee."

"How much exactly?"

"Preliminary estimates put the annual interconnection service fee between three million and five million US dollars; the exact figure can only be determined after the detailed design is out."

Mu Xin did not speak; he took a sip of coffee.

"Mr. Hamilton, I have a proposal." Mu Xin set down the coffee cup, took another document from Victoria's hand, and pushed it in front of Paul.

It was a blue cover, with a few large characters printed on it: Oxford Town Islanded Power Supply System — Feasibility Study Report.

Below it was written the preparation unit, the names of Dan Miller and his team, and the date was last week.

Paul opened the cover, read a few pages, and his brows gradually knitted together.