This Phase III System Impact Study Report (PH3) has been prepared in accordance with the PJM Open Access Transmission Tariff, Part VII, Subpart D, section 312 for New Service Requests (projects) in Transition Cycle 1. The Project Developer/Eligible Customer (developer) is Grain Belt Express LLC, and the Transmission Provider (TP) is PJM Interconnection, LLC (PJM). The interconnected Transmission Owner (TO) is AEP Indiana Michigan Transmission Company, Inc..

New Service Requests meeting the requirements of Tariff, Part VII, Subpart D, Decision Point II, were included in the Phase III System Impact Study. The Phase III System Impact Study is conducted on an aggregate basis within a New Services Request’s Cycle, and results are provided in both (i) a single Cycle executive summary format and (ii) an individual project-level basis. The Phase III System Impact Study Results (for both the executive summary and individual reports) will be publicly available on PJM’s website. Developers must obtain the results from the website.

In accordance with PJM Manual 14H, section 4.7, PJM takes the following actions during the Phase III System Impact Study:

1. PJM will retool load flow, short circuit and stability results based on decisions made by Project Developers or Eligible Customers during Decision Point II.
2. PJM will coordinate with Affected System Operators to conduct any studies required to determine the final impact of a New Service Request on any Affected System and will include the final Affected System Study results in the Phase III System Impact Study, if available from the Affected System.
3. The Phase III System Impact Study Results will be publicly available on PJM’s website; Project Developers and Eligible Customers must obtain the results from the website.
4. PJM will tender draft final agreements to Project Developers or Eligible Customers.

The Transmission Owner takes the following actions during the Phase III System Impact Study:

1. Verify Interconnection Facilities and Network Upgrades required to accommodate the New Service Request.
2. Perform a Facilities Study. The Facilities Study in Phase III System Impact Study phase will be for the System Reliability Network Upgrades. The Facilities Study requirements are outlined in Attachment C of PJM Manual 14H. The study will be conducted pursuant to Tariff, Part VII, Subpart D, section 307(A)(7).

At the close of Phase III System Impact Study, PJM will initiate Decision Point III (DP3). During DP3, the Project Developer will have 30 days to decide whether to proceed with their project. If the Project Developer elects to proceed, they should provide the elements defined in the PJM Open Access Transmission Tariff, Part VII, Subpart D, section 313.A. Additional information on these elements is available in PJM Manual 14H sections 4.8, 6, and 7.

As stated in PJM Tariff, Part VII, Subpart D, section 313.C, New Service Requests may not be changed or modified in any way for any reason during Decision Point III. A New Service Request must be withdrawn and resubmitted in a subsequent Cycle to the extent a Project Developer or Eligible Customer wants to make any changes to such New Service Request at this point in the Cycle process.

This New Service Request meets the Adverse Study Impact Criteria and has the option to either move forward in the Cycle process or withdraw at DP3 with cumulative Readiness Deposits refunded. See Readiness Deposit calculation below.

This section details whether a Project Developer or Eligible Customer qualifies for the Adverse Study Impact clause outlined in the PJM OATT, Part VII, Subpart D, section 313.B and Manual 14H, section 6.2.2. In order to qualify for an Adverse Study Impact at Decision Point III, the Network Upgrade cost from Phase II to Phase III must:

1. Increase overall by 35% or more
2. Increases by more than $25,000 per MW (Includes Costs identified in Affected System studies)

If a New Service Request meets the criteria above and chooses to withdraw the request, PJM will refund the cumulative Readiness Deposit amounts paid at the Application Phase, Decision Point I, and Decision Point II (RD1, and RD2 and RD3, respectively).

The below calculations show the computation of this New Service Request's Adverse Study Impact

The Project Developer has proposed an uprate to a planned/existing Merchant Transmission facility located in the American Electric Power zone — Sullivan County, Indiana. This project is an increase to the developer’s AF1-088 project(s), which will share the same Point of Interconnection. The AF2-008 project is a 1000.0 MW (500.0 MW Capacity) uprate to Transmission Injection Rights and 0.0 MW (0.0 MW Firm) uprate to Transmission Withdrawal Rights to the previous projects.

Physical Interconnection Facility Study

The transmission owner has completed the Physical Interconnection Facilities Study. This report is available for download.

AF2-008 will interconnect on the AEP Indiana Michigan Transmission Company, Inc. transmission system as a 525kV HVDC tie at the Sullivan 345 kV substation.

The table below shows a summary of the total cost estimates for this New Service Request project. In Phase III SIS, the interconnected Transmission Owner has performed a facilities study for the required System Reliability Network Upgrades. The Facilities Studies for the Transmission Owner Interconnection Facilities (TOIF) and Physical Interconnection Network Upgrades were performed by the Transmission Owner in Phase II and are available for download on PJM.com (see General Section for document links).

Based on the Phase III SIS results, the AF2-008 project has the following allocation of costs for interconnection. The Security amount required at DP3 is also shown below.

* Contributes to calculation for Security. See Security Section of this report for additional detail.

Definitions

Transmission Owner Interconnection Facilities: Facilities that are owned, controlled, operated and maintained by the Transmission Owner on the Transmission Owner’s side of the Point of Change of Ownership to the Point of Interconnection, including any modifications, additions or upgrades made to such facilities and equipment, that are necessary to physically and electrically interconnect the Generating Facility with the Transmission System or interconnected distribution facilities.

Stand Alone Network Upgrades: Network Upgrades, which are not part of an Affected System, which a Project Developer may construct without affecting day-to-day operations (e.g. taking a transmission outage) of the Transmission System during their construction.

Network Upgrades: Modifications or additions to transmission-related facilities that are integrated with and support the Transmission Provider’s overall Transmission System for the general benefit of all users of such Transmission System. Network Upgrades have no impact or potential impact on the Transmission System until the final tie-in is complete.

Notes

Note 1: PJM Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT), Part VII, Subpart D, section 307.5 outlines cost allocation rules. The rules are further clarified in PJM Manual 14H, section 4.2.6. PJM shall identify the New Service Requests in the Cycle contributing to the need for the required Network Upgrades within the Cycle. All New Service Requests that contribute to the need for a Network Upgrade will receive cost allocation for that upgrade pursuant to each New Service Request’s contribution to the reliability violation identified on the transmission system in accordance with PJM Manuals.

Note 2: There will be no inter-Cycle cost allocation for Interconnection Facilities or Network Upgrades identified in the System Impact Study costs identified in a Cycle; all such costs shall be allocated to New Service Requests in that Cycle.

Note 3: For Project Developers with System Reinforcements listed: If this project presents cost allocation to a System Reinforcement indicates $0, then please be aware that as changes to the interconnection process occur, such as other projects withdrawing, reducing in size, etc, the cost responsibilities can change and a cost allocation may be assigned to this project. In addition, although this project presents cost allocation to a System Reinforcement is presently $0, this project may need this system reinforcement completed to be deliverable to the PJM system. If this project desires to come into service prior to completion of the system reinforcement, the Project Developer will need to request PJM to perform an interim deliverability study to determine if they would be deliverable for all or a portion of their output for each delivery year until the system reinforcement is complete.

Per Tariff Part VII, Subpart D, section 313 (Decision Point III) A.1.a and PJM Manual 14H, section 8.6.1, Project Developers and Eligible Customers are required to provide Security in a form acceptable to PJM at Decision Point III which runs concurrently with the projects' Final Agreement Negotiation Phase. Security may be in the form of cash, letter of credit, or other form of Security acceptable to PJM (see PJM M14H, Section 6.4).

Security is calculated for a New Service Request based on the Network Upgrade costs allocated pursuant to the Phase III System Impact Study results.

Note 1: "Network Upgrades" referred to in the calculation include both (i) the Physical Interconnection Network Upgrades and (ii) the System Reliability Network Upgrades as shown in the Cost Summary table.

Security Due for AF1-088/AF2-008

Security has been calculated for the AF1-088/AF2-008 project(s) based on the Phase III System Impact Study results and is shown in the table below. This Security must be provided at Decision Point III through either a wire transfer or letter of credit or other form of Security deemed acceptable by PJM per Manual 14H, Section 6.4.

AF2-008 will interconnect with the AEP transmission system via a direct connection to the Sullivan 345 kV Station. The estimates provided in this report are preliminary in nature, as they were determined without the benefit of detailed engineering studies. Final estimates will require an on-site review and coordination to determine final construction requirements.

The total preliminary cost estimate for the Transmission Owner scope of work (including TOIF and Physical Interconnection Network Upgrades) is given in the table below. These costs do not include CIAC Tax Gross-up.

Based on the scope of work for the Interconnection Facilities, it is expected to take a range of 30 to 60 month(s) after the signing of a Generator Interconnection Agreement (as this is a FERC connection) and construction kickoff call to complete the installation of the physical connection work. This assumes that there will be no environmental issues with any of the new properties associated with this project, that there will be no delays in acquiring the necessary permits for implementing the defined interconnection work, and that all system outages will be allowed when requested.

Note that the TO findings were made from a conceptual review of this project. A more detailed review of the connection facilities and their cost will be identified in a future study phase. Further note that the cost estimate data provided should be considered high level estimates since it was produced without a detailed engineering review. The Project Developer will be responsible for the actual cost of construction. TO herein reserves the right to return to any issues in this document and, upon appropriate justification, request additional monies to complete any reinforcements to the transmission systems.

Remote Terminal Work: During Phase 2 of the PJM interconnection process, TO’s System Protection Engineering Department will review transmission line protection as well as anti-islanding required to accommodate the new generation and interconnection substation. System Protection Engineering will determine the minimal acceptable protection requirements to reliably interconnect the proposed generating facility with the transmission system. The review is based on maintaining system reliability by reviewing TO’s protection requirements with the known transmission system configuration which includes generating facilities in the area. This review may determine that transmission line protection and communication upgrades are required at remote substations.

The minimum and maximum schedules reflect the amount of time (in months) that AEP projects their portion of the construction project scope elapsing from the time of agreement. Final agreements will reflect an "on or before" date, allowing all parties to complete their scope of work prior to the agreement date, should there be means to expedite. Any material ordering or construction work done prior to Engineering and Procurement or Generation Interconnection Agreements is done solely at the Project Developers risk. There is a potential that the work or materials ordered prior to agreements and the ensuing detailed engineering processes does not meet AEP specifications, resulting in rejection of the completed work.

No Transmission Owner impacts identified.

The developer is responsible for all design and construction related activities on the developer’s side of the Point of Change in Ownership. AEP interconnection requirements can be found here. Refer to AF2-008 Physical Interconnection Facilities Study for additional requirements found in the General Section of the report.

To the extent that these Applicable Technical Requirements and Standards may conflict with the terms and conditions of the Tariff, the Tariff shall control.

The developer will be required to install equipment necessary to provide Revenue Metering (KWH, KVARH) and real time data (KW, KVAR) for their generating Resource. See PJM Manual 01, PJM Manual 14D, and PJM Tariff Part IX, Subpart B, Appendix 2, section 8.

The Project Developer will be required to comply with all interconnected Transmission Owner’s revenue metering requirements located at the following link: PJM - Transmission Owner Engineering & Construction Standards and in the Physical Interconnection Facilities Study.