When an “emergency” is not really like an emergent emergency. I heard from some folks who were freaked out by this news item.
It’s one more artifact of a changing climate. Unseasonably warm October weather, coming at a time when utilities typically have generators and transmission infrastructure down for maintenance, has put some pressure on the PJM – the Grid operator covering the Mid Atlantic States and a slice of the midwest.
As I understand it, this order makes certain types of back up generators in the system, say at Data Centers, available if needed. There was no need to trigger any of that capacity.
So the “energy emergency” story was actually an artifact of the much larger climate story, that apparently is beyond the media’s capacity to put in context.
PJM continues to proactively implement procedures to reliably serve increased electricity demand caused by unusually warm fall weather amid planned equipment outages required for maintenance and construction.
PJM is currently in planned maintenance season. Typically, both transmission and generation facilities are taken out of service to perform maintenance and construction from mid-September through early December, so they are fully available to serve loads during peak winter periods.
PJM has recalled or canceled transmission and generation outages to the extent possible. This includes recall of all active generation maintenance outage tickets in the region PJM serves effective noon on Oct. 14. Generation outages were at approximately 61,000 MW Tuesday, in addition to key transmission outages to allow for both maintenance and major transmission construction projects.
“Unseasonable weather patterns are providing fewer days to perform important maintenance or construction on the generation and transmission equipment serving our footprint,” said Mike Bryson, PJM Sr. Vice President – System Operations. “This is the new reality that grid operators are facing, but PJM is confident that our procedures, along with the DOE orders, gives us additional tools to maintain our reserve margins and allow us to operate reliably.”