Dive Brief:
- PJM Interconnection hit a new winter peak load last week during a stretch of extremely cold temperatures, reaching 143,800 MW in the morning of Feb. 20.
- The increased demand was no threat to reliability, however, and Leigh Valley Live reported the grid operator had almost 161,000 MW available to meet demand.
Dive Insight:
PJM continues to meet demand, even in the face of extreme temperatures, proving that preparations taken after last winter's polar vortex have paid off. The grid registered a new winter peak load record last week of almost 144,000 MW.
To put that in perspective, PJM's total peak loads come in the summer: the system's all-time peak of 165,492 MW in the summer of 2011. And back in November the first blast of serious winter air set a new monthly record of 121,987 MW on the evening of Nov. 18, beating out a previous record of 114,699 MW.
PJM has been focused on reliability this winter after extreme temperatures a little more than a year ago pushed the system to its limits. In January 2014 temperatures in PJM's territory dropped to -15 degrees Fahrenheit across two days and at the height of the Polar Vortex the grid operator reported a forced outage rate of 22% with about 40,200 MW offline.