DOE issued an emergency grid order to PJM as October heat strains power supplies

The U.S. Department of Energy issued an emergency order on Monday directing PJM Interconnection to dispatch specified generating units and authorize the use of backup power resources as unseasonably warm October weather collides with the grid operator's autumn maintenance season.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright signed Order No. 202-26-50 on October 12, invoking Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, which allows the secretary to compel generation and transmission in a declared emergency. The order took effect Tuesday and runs through October 16, the DOE said.

The grid operator, PJM — which serves more than 67 million customers in 13 states and Washington, D.C. — applied for the order on October 11. The grid operator forecast demand reaching approximately 111,500 MW or above on Tuesday and projected it would come within 900 MW of its reserve margin on Wednesday, with anticipated generation outages reaching 61,591 MW across its footprint. The most acute stress was expected in the BGE, PEPCO, and Dominion $D zones, according to the DOE order.

The order authorizes PJM to direct backup generation resources — including those at data centers and large industrial and commercial sites — to operate as a last resort before or during an Energy Emergency Alert Level 3, which is the stage at which firm load interruptions, or blackouts, may occur. PJM is permitted to call on its transmission owners and electric distribution companies to bring those resources online.

The emergency stems from three overlapping pressures: elevated electricity demand driven by above-normal temperatures, a high volume of planned generator outages typical of the autumn maintenance period, and numerous scheduled transmission outages, the DOE order said. Transfer constraints on several key transmission corridors, including the Conastone–Peach Bottom 500 kV line and the Crete–St. Johns 345 kV tie with the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, are also limiting how much generation can reach stressed areas.

Parts of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic could see temperatures climb more than 25 degrees Fahrenheit beyond seasonal norms, pushing highs toward 90°F in Washington, D.C., by midweek, according to Bloomberg. About 60 gigawatts of capacity remained offline Tuesday and those outages were expected to persist, representing roughly one-third of PJM's fleet, Bloomberg reported.

A PJM spokesperson told Newsweek that the grid operator anticipates no customer impacts and that no action is required of customers. Similar emergency orders had been granted by the DOE multiple times this year, the spokesperson added, according to Newsweek.

The difficulty of finding maintenance windows has become a structural challenge. Demand from data centers is the primary driver of load growth in the region, and new generation and transmission capacity cannot be built fast enough to keep pace. PJM's independent market monitor has found that data center load growth is the main reason for tight capacity market conditions and high prices.