FERC rejects Oklo's bid to put a 750 MW project back in PJM's queue
Victoria Shinder2 min readThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on 24 September rejected a complaint from Oklo asking it to overturn PJM Interconnection's decision to remove a 750 MW project in Virginia from the current interconnection study cycle. FERC found that Oklo had not shown PJM broke any rule when it withdrew the project in early August, and noted that Oklo had not fixed deficiencies in its application that PJM staff had identified.
The project is a hybrid: 150 MW of advanced nuclear generation, 300 MW of fuel cells and 300 MW of gas-fired generation, connecting at two Dominion Energy substations between Washington and Richmond. Oklo, which is developing small metal-fuelled fast reactors in the 15 to 75 MW range, told FERC that missing this cycle would delay the project by at least 18 months and raise its cost.
The order leaves two routes open. Oklo can correct the application and enter PJM's next study cycle, or, if it wants speed, apply to PJM's Expedited Interconnection Track, which accepts projects until 31 December 2027. FERC added a pointed line of its own: while PJM did not violate its tariff, the commission said it is critical that PJM work with developers before, during and after the application so that guidance and expectations are clearly understood. According to Utility Dive, five other complaints alleging that PJM wrongly dropped projects from the same cycle are still pending.
What it means
The decision confirms the direction of PJM's reformed queue: a cluster study that refuses to carry incomplete applications, and a regulator willing to back that even for a project with a strong demand-side story. The cost of an error in the paperwork is now measured in study cycles, not in weeks of correspondence. For developers the lesson is procedural - treat PJM's deficiency notices as the critical path, because FERC will not rescue an application on the merits of the technology behind it.
The more interesting signal is the composition of the project. Only a fifth of its capacity is nuclear; the rest is gas and fuel cells that could be built far sooner. That is increasingly the shape of "advanced nuclear" proposals aimed at data-centre load: firm capacity now, with the reactor as the long-dated component. The five pending complaints will show whether FERC's instruction to PJM to communicate better turns into any change in how deficiencies are handled, or remains a line in an order.