Power prices soared on Thursday across PJM Interconnection, the nation's largest grid operator serving 67 million people across 13 states, as a brutal multi-day heat dome pushed electricity demand toward critically high levels and raised the risk of rolling blackouts.
Ahead of triple-digit temperatures today across the Mid-Atlantic, including Washington, DC, Baltimore, and New York, PJM has declared a level 2 grid emergency and ordered emergency load reductions.
The alert, one step below a warning of imminent rolling blackouts, applied across PJM's territory from Illinois to Washington, DC.
Under North American Electric Reliability Corp. definitions, an Energy Emergency Alert 2 means the grid operator can no longer meet expected requirements but is still maintaining minimum contingency reserves.
GridStatus data shows the PJM grid was kept afloat Thursday almost entirely by natural gas, nuclear, and coal. As of Friday morning, the three fuel sources were supplying more than 94% of the grid's total power.
Wind and solar power generation were largely in the single digits when the grid needed reliable dispatchable power. This is an uncomfortable reality for the Democratic Party, which has become little more than a band of climate socialists hellbent on destabilizing the grid with an unreliable power mix.
Average power prices across PJM are set to soar from
