Paul McGlynn, who is retiring as Vice President of Planning, was honored for nearly four decades of service in the industry at a reception March 19 on the PJM campus.
“He always instilled that sense of confidence with us that we were prepared,” said Stu Bresler, Executive Vice President, Market Services and Strategy. “At PJM, Paul has been unwaveringly dedicated to doing the right thing, and doing the right thing for reliability, to deliver this product we provide to our consumers whose lives depend on it.”
McGlynn has served as Vice President of Planning since November 2023, when he succeeded the retiring Ken Seiler.
In that role, McGlynn was responsible for activities related to resource adequacy, generation interconnection, interregional planning and transmission planning, including the development of the Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP).
Over his 18 years at PJM, McGlynn also was Executive Director of System Operations, ensuring the secure, reliable, economic and coordinated operation of the system, including PJM’s real-time dispatch operations and near-term reliability studies.
Aftab Khan, Executive Vice President, Operations, Planning and Security, said one of the first emails he received when he joined PJM a year ago was from McGlynn. “It was two pages. He said, this is what we need to go over. I am very appreciative of him helping me come on board.”
Khan listed among McGlynn’s achievements that he played an instrumental role in implementing FERC Order 1000 and navigating PJM through Winter Storm Elliott.
McGlynn recalled operating the system through the pandemic, without any person-to-person transfer of COVID among dispatchers.
He said he’s proud of having contributed to keeping the lights on during Winter Storm Uri, when PJM was exporting more than 16,000 MW to the Eastern Interconnection, and for Winter Storm Elliott, when PJM again supported its neighbors, regardless of the highest generation outages PJM had ever experienced during peak winter conditions.
Before that, McGlynn was the Senior Director of System Planning. In that post, he was responsible for the development of the RTEP, including assessing long-term transmission system adequacy and reliability and recommending bulk transmission system expansions or enhancement options.
Prior to PJM, McGlynn held various positions in engineering and operations at Philadelphia Electric Company, where he started as a field engineer doing startup testing on new capital projects.
In 2007, McGlynn followed several of his colleagues to PJM, where he assumed the role of Manager of Transmission Planning, working with what he called the “greatest planning staff on the planet.”
McGlynn earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Drexel University.
He serves on the Board of Directors of the SERC Reliability Corporation. He is a registered professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is a senior member of the IEEE.
“After PJM, I’m looking forward to not using an alarm clock, doing triathlons, racing my gravel bike and traveling with my wife,” McGlynn said.
Jason Connell, previously Executive Director – Transmission and Resource Adequacy Planning, assumed the role of Vice President of Planning effective Jan. 1.