Power Grid Emergency Hits VA: What To Know

Updated, 6:42 p.m.

The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced an Energy Emergency Alert to 13 states on the Mid-Atlantic power grid, including Virginia.

The emergency declaration, in effect through Friday, will allow certain power plants in the region to bypass normal operating restrictions to help ensure a reliable flow of electricity.

Officials say the move will mitigate blackout risks in the Mid-Atlantic ahead of "a period of elevated demand, a high rate of planned generator outages during the autumn maintenance season, and numerous planned transmission outages."

“This order will help ensure millions of American families and businesses across the Mid-Atlantic have access to affordable, reliable, and secure electricity by making additional power generation, including backup power, available to use as needed,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.

While mass blackouts aren't necessarily imminent, the Department of Energy says 35 gigawatts of unused backup generation remains available nationwide in the event they take place.

Wright added that while previous administrations' "energy subtraction policies" left the Mid-Atlantic region more vulnerable to blackouts, current leadership remains committed to "using every available tool" to prevent them, including declaring an Energy Emergency Alert.

"Blackouts can be deadly, and it’s critical that we do all we can to prevent them," Senator Tim Kaine's told Patch in a statement. "That work must also include bringing more affordable, clean energy sources online, and ensuring that data centers pay their fair share for the grid infrastructure upgrades their demand requires."

Congressman Suhas Subramanyam told Patch, “Data centers have placed an extreme strain on Virginia’s energy infrastructure. I’ve called for a data center moratorium for our community. I’ve put forward a national data center plan to make data centers pay for their own energy, create a national data center siting plan that protects communities, accurately measure data centers’ energy and water usage, and protect Americans’ security living near data centers. I will continue to protect our community from data center growth – it’s needed to alleviate the strain on our energy infrastructure.”

The Mid-Atlantic grid is run by PJM Interconnection, which provides power to 13 states and more than 67 million people.

The states affected are:

• (Washington D.C.)
• Delaware
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Maryland
• Michigan
• New Jersey
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Tennessee
• Virginia
• West Virginia

A New Reality

In a statement to Patch, a PJM spokesperson said planned maintenance outages were becoming a reliability concern beyond the typical demands during the summer and winter months.

"The conditions we have seen in both September and October reflect the reality that PJM and other grid operators are facing: increased baseload electricity demand is growing faster than new capacity can come onto the system; and unseasonable weather patterns are providing fewer days to perform important maintenance or construction on the generation and transmission equipment serving our footprint," PJM said in a statement to Patch.

Sweltering heat previously forced PJM to take action in mid-September.

Two periods earlier flagged by PJM — Aug. 31 to Sept. 4 and Sept. 15–18 — forced the operator to "balance reliability against planned transmission and generation limitations, as well as exports to neighboring systems."

It was on Sept. 17 that PJM recorded a "system peak" shortly before 5 p.m., with system outages of 20.7% occurring the next day.

Patch has reached out to the Energy Department for comment.