The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday issued an emergency order allowing Duke Energy to exceed emissions limits in its power plant permits in the Carolinas during a heat wave.
The emergency order expires at 10 p.m. on Wednesday when the heat and humidity is expected to ease, according to DOE. The order, issued under the Federal Power Act’s section 202(c), will help reduce the risk of blackouts brought on by high temperatures across the Southeast region, the department said.
Under the order, Duke will be allowed to exceed power plant emissions limits when it declares an Energy Emergency Alert Level 2, which it expects to do, DOE said. The North American Electric Reliability Corp. defines an EEA-2 as when a grid operator cannot provide its expected energy requirements, but is still able to maintain minimum contingency reserve requirements, according to the PJM Interconnection.
Once Duke declares that the EEA Level 2 event has ended, its generating units would be required to immediately return to operation within their permitted limits, the department said.
In its request to DOE for the emergency order, Duke said about 1,500 MW of its power plants in the Carolinas are offline while other generating units may be limited by conditions and limitations in their environmental permits, according to the department.
DOE issued a similar order for Duke Energy Florida in October in response to Hurricane Milton.
DOE has also issued 90-day emergency orders to keep generating units that were set to retire on May 30 operating this summer in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
