The largest U.S. power grid operator, PJM Interconnection, said Tuesday it issued extra alerts to transmission and generation firms, and warned demand will exceed 147 GW, an all-time high for winter.
PJM, which serves more than 67M people in 13 states and the District of Columbia, issued Maximum Generation and Load Management alerts for companies to see if any maintenance or testing could be deferred or canceled to keep units online during the critical period.
Depending on temperatures, PJM said it could set a new all-time winter peak load on Tuesday, partly due to data center electricity needs, with predicted overall demand at 147.2 GW, above the record winter demand of 143.7 GW set in January a year ago.
The operator said peak demand could exceed 130 GW for seven straight days, a winter streak never before experienced.
Energy Secretary signed an order Monday authorizing PJM to direct data centers, factories and other large facilities to switch on back-up generators to reduce their burden on the grid.
Power grids so far have avoided rolling blackouts in the current cold snap, with most of the weekend's outages caused by storm damage and ice, but icy temperatures and dangerous wind chills are expected to continue into next weekend across much of the U.S., with forecasters at the U.S. National Weather Service calling it "the longest duration of cold in several decades."
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