Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued a second emergency order to protect grid reliability across 13 states and the District of Columbia on Aug. 21, building on an initial emergency directive issued just two days earlier.
Back-to-back emergency orders for the Mid-Atlantic power grid suggest a serious and ongoing reliability crisis in one of the most densely populated and economically critical regions of the United States.
The follow-up order compels power generators that might otherwise retire or curtail capacity to remain online during the grid stress period, according to the Department of Energy. The directive covers a region that powers the federal government, major financial centers and millions of American homes and businesses.
Grid reliability emergencies of this magnitude are rare. The issuance of two emergency orders within 48 hours indicates that the initial Aug. 19 directive did not fully resolve the supply-demand imbalance threatening the region’s electricity system, the DOE announcement said.
The Mid-Atlantic grid is operated by PJM Interconnection, which coordinates electricity supply across all or parts of 13 states and Washington, D.C. PJM has warned in recent capacity assessments that the region faces growing strain from data center construction, power plant retirements and increasing peak demand.
The emergency orders carry legal force, overriding market and regulatory conditions that might otherwise allow generators to take capacity offline. The authority to issue such orders is reserved for situations where the Energy Secretary determines that grid reliability is at imminent risk.
The affected region includes Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio and several other states where electricity demand has surged in recent years.