Dive Brief:
- The PJM Interconnection can curtail data centers and other large loads that have backup generation under an emergency order issued Monday by the U.S. Department of Energy.
- PJM on Sunday asked to be able to direct transmission owners and electric utilities in its Mid-Atlantic and Midwest footprint for permission to curtail those facilities if needed for three days starting May 18 because of hot weather combined with planned power plant maintenance outages.
- PJM said it expected to have less than 5,800 MW of reserves during its May 18 peak, and that Maryland and Virginia could be especially stressed by the unseasonably hot weather.
Dive Insight:
Power plant and transmission owners often take their facilities offline in the spring for maintenance so they are prepared for the summer, PJM noted. The grid operator said it expected power plants totaling more than 40 GW would be offline for planned outages on May 18.
“The projected level of generation outages coupled with the forecasted demand raises a significant risk of emergency conditions that could jeopardize electric reliability and public safety,” PJM said.
The curtailments would be a last resort before ordering rolling blackouts, according to the DOE’s order, issued under the Federal Power Act’s section 202(c). Only large energy consumers with backup generation would be affected.
“The employment of this backup generation is expected to reduce stress on the grid,” the DOE said. “This will permit orderly, safe, and secure operations during PJM’s hot weather conditions.”
There are significant amounts of backup generation in the United States that have remained largely untapped during grid emergencies, according to the DOE.
“Deployment of backup generation resources (whether auxiliary, standby, directly-connected, battery storage or other, and whether synchronized or not to the bulk power system) at data centers (including, but not limited to, hyperscaler facilities), and at other large load industrial and commercial customer sites, can prevent avoidable blackouts, thereby saving lives and reducing costs to the American people,” the department said.
In January, the DOE issued similar emergency orders to PJM, Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress, and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
PJM said on Monday that it had issued “maximum generation” and “load management” alerts for May 19, with a “hot weather” alert in place for most of the PJM footprint.
Also, the grid operator activated demand response customers in parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Dominion regions. The grid operator said it called on pre-emergency demand response for the Baltimore Gas and Electric, Dominion and Potomac Electric Power Co. areas on Monday to address local transmission constraints and to preserve the run-time of generators that will be needed for the hot weather and higher electricity demand expected on Tuesday and Wednesday.
For three days starting on Tuesday, PJM expected its peak load to hit 134,027 MW, 135,961 MW and 119,103 MW.
