PJM Interconnection

16Oct

We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat

Every month, projections on just how much and how fast U.S. electricity demand is growing keep rising. As those projections soar, the arithmetic of the energy transition is being rewritten in real time. There’s the unforgettable line in Jaws, when the chief of police, Martin Brody, sees the shark for the first time. Stunned, he […]
02Oct

PJM Can’t Get New Capacity Online

At the precise moment power demand is exploding, PJM, the operator of the nation’s largest grid, is struggling to get new capacity online. In fact, the problem is doubly difficult. At the exact time PJM desperately needs new capacity additions to surge, they’re stalled, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making matters worse […]
18Sep

Grid Operators Tell the Court: EPA’s Rule is a Dire Threat to Reliability

The nation’s grid operators warned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the then proposed so-called Clean Power Plan 2.0 was a direct and alarming threat to grid reliability. Those concerns were shrugged off as EPA pushed forward and finalized an unworkable and unlawful rule. Now, the grid operators are getting involved in the legal […]
04Sep

Dispatchable Power Remains Irreplaceable

On August 26, amidst broiling heat across the Midwest, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) issued a maximum generation event with power demand soaring to 122 gigawatts (GW). MISO – with service territory stretching from Louisiana up through Minnesota – needed every megawatt of power it could generate and then some. MISO even needed to […]
14Aug

Surging Capacity Prices in PJM Set off New Alarms

For months now, PJM’s leadership has warned of rapidly approaching power shortages. If there was any suspicion of exaggeration, PJM’s most recent capacity auction has put those rumblings to bed. Capacity payments to generators in PJM, a sort of insurance premium to assure plants are available when needed, just jumped a remarkable 800% as rising […]
17Jul

Are Candidates Ready to Address Energy Shortages?

The campaign trail is about to be filled with contrasting visions of the nation’s energy future. While oil production and the ongoing debate about energy independence are sure to draw focus, the remarkably perilous state of the nation’s power grid and our supply of electricity have become kitchen-table issues. Americans are rightfully frustrated with eroding […]
10Jul

MISO Warns it’s Going to be Woefully Short of Power

Across the country, one grid operator after another is sounding the alarm over soaring power demand, an inability to meet it and the threat posed by early retirements of essential coal capacity. PJM Interconnection, the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and now the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) have all […]
27Jun

A Scorching Reminder of the Coal Fleet’s Importance

Searing summer heat has blanketed much of the country and once again coal power is playing an essential role in meeting soaring demand. But this coal capacity – the very power plants working overtime to keep the lights on and air conditioners running – comes from the same plants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) […]
12Jun

It’s the Entire Suite of Rules

Lawsuits are piling up in opposition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) so-called Clean Power Plan 2.0. Senator Capito of West Viriginia and Congressman Balderson of Ohio have led the charge in pursuing a Congressional Review Act (CRA) joint resolution of disapproval of the rule. This mobilization of opposition is deeply important to confronting […]
05Jun

Surging Power Demands Meet an Inflexible EPA Agenda

Not a week goes by without another jaw-dropping projection on the speed and scale of power demand growth. PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator serving 65 million Americans, has warned again and again that it is facing rapidly approaching capacity shortfalls. The collision of soaring power demand driven by electrification, new industrial activity and […]