Largest U.S Grid Faces Tough Test as Heat Wave Hits Midwest

The operator of the biggest U.S. power grid has issued hot weather and maximum generation alerts for the areas in the Midwest and East it serves as a heat wave that has settled on large parts of the Midwest and parts of the South.

PJM Interconnection, which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity and ensures power supplies for 65 million people in all or parts of 13 eastern and Midwest U.S. states and D.C., has issued a Maximum Generation Alert and Load Management Alert for August 27. The alert was issued ahead of expected hot weather across many parts of the Eastern Interconnection, including the region PJM serves.

“PJM is issuing the alert as a precautionary measure after all PJM resources are committed and exports of electricity outside of the PJM footprint may need to be curtailed in order to maintain reserve requirements,” the grid operator said in the Monday alert, adding that no customer actions are required.

The alert is targeted at transmission and generation owners, who then determine if any maintenance or testing on any equipment can be deferred or canceled, in order to maintain the availability of all resources.

Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia are all expected to see temperatures rise to the mid to high-90s Fahrenheit on Tuesday and Wednesday, with Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport forecast to reach 97 F today, a record-high for August 27, according to weather forecasters cited by Bloomberg.

With demand for air conditioning spiking in the heat wave, PJM’s grid could face a test of resilience.

Further south in Texas, the state used a record amount of electricity on August 20, the Electric Reliability Council has reported, noting that the data has yet to be made official after calculating meter readings.

Earlier in the year, ERCOT forecast that electricity demand in the Lone Star State could double in six years, necessitating the urgent addition of more generation capacity.

The good news in the situation is that this year ERCOT appears to have been much better prepared to handle the occasional surges in electricity demand.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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