On August 3, 2026, from Valley Forge, PJM Interconnection said 715 new generation projects had qualified for the first Cycle of its reformed interconnection process. Nameplate in that Cycle is 201.5 GW. The PJM Inside Lines release is the primary source. The application window closed April 27 with 811 proposals. Screening for technical information and financial deposits cut that to 715.
Solar is 117 of those projects and 11.8 GW of nameplate. Solar-storage hybrids add 37 projects and 7.5 GW. Storage leads the count at 314. Natural gas leads the megawatts. That mix is the story for a Pennsylvania EPC that still thinks “the queue” means a PECO Level 1 PDF.
What Cycle 1 is, and what it is not
Cycle 1 is PJM’s first-ready, first-served study track. PJM says there is no leftover backlog from the old serial queues. Reviews are supposed to run one to two years depending on system impact. Signed agreements from this Cycle are a 2028 story, not a 2026 PTO story. Transition Cycle 2 is still queued to finish in early 2027.
PJM posted the summer peak model on August 28. Winter peak and light-load cases follow on September 11. Those cases are why a developer stays or withdraws before Phase 1 results land. If you have a Cycle 1 solar or hybrid in Pennsylvania, someone on your team should be reading those models this week, not after the withdrawal penalty feels theoretical.
Pennsylvania-specific context is in the PA Environment Digest write-up of the same release: about 39.8 GW of the Cycle’s proposed generation sits in Pennsylvania, the largest state slice. That is wholesale interconnection interest, not a count of rooftop applications.
Chapter 75 jobs are still Chapter 75 jobs
A 10 kW PECO rooftop does not enter Cycle 1. A 2 MW behind-the-meter array on a warehouse usually does not either. Those jobs file under 52 Pa. Code Chapter 75 with the electric distribution company: PECO, PPL, Duquesne, FirstEnergy’s Pennsylvania companies. Levels 1 through 4, Fast Track screens, and the EDC portal still govern the interconnection application.
What Cycle 1 does to those jobs is indirect. A feeder that is also looking at a nearby wholesale solar-plus-storage project can get tighter. Hosting capacity maps move. A Level 2 that used to clear screens can pick up a facilities study. That is not PJM “accepting” your rooftop. That is the distribution system getting busier while PJM studies 200 GW of nameplate.
If your Pennsylvania pipeline includes front-of-the-meter or wholesale-market participation, you are in PJM’s world or on the seam between Chapter 75 and the tariff. Do not force that into MyGeneration as if it were a 10 kW Level 1.
Site control and drawings, not just a queue screenshot
PJM’s new screen wants site control and real deposits up front. Ninety-six of 811 applications failed that first cut. For an EPC supporting a Cycle 1 developer, the permit set and the one-line have to match the site-control story PJM already accepted. A relocated inverter pad after a township hearing is a new engineering problem and, if you are not careful, a new queue problem.
Township conditional use, zoning, and stormwater sit on a different clock from PJM Phase 1. PJM itself noted that many projects with signed agreements are still waiting on state permitting and supply chain. A Cycle 1 acceptance letter does not pull a building permit in Bucks County.
PTO on the distribution side
PECO’s own brochure is still the closeout sequence most residential crews use: interconnection application, Approval to Install, municipal inspection, meter, then a signed Permission to Operate letter. PTO, PPO, and permit to operate mean that letter. Do not energize on a Cycle 1 press release. Do not energize on a Chapter 75 completeness email either.
If you run both wholesale and behind-the-meter work, keep two checklists. We already wrote the installer version of that split in NY SIR vs Pennsylvania Chapter 75. Incentive context sits in the Pennsylvania net metering and SREC guide.
What to do on PA packages this week
- Label each job PJM Cycle 1, Transition Cycle 2, or Chapter 75. One label per job.
- If it is Cycle 1, calendar September 11 for the winter and light-load cases.
- If it is Chapter 75, file the EDC level that matches nameplate. Do not “upgrade” a rooftop into PJM to sound serious.
- Match the one-line, site plan, and PE set to the same acreage and POI you used for site control.
- City drawing notes: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh.
Athol will keep Chapter 75 interconnection applications on the EDC forms and put Cycle 1 support drawings on the same model the developer used for site control. Permit design, interconnection, and PE stamping are three products, not one PDF. Statewide: Pennsylvania solar design services. More on the blog.
Sources: PJM Inside Lines, August 3, 2026, 52 Pa. Code Chapter 75, Subchapter C.