Dive Brief:
- The first blast of winter air this spiked PJM Interconnection demand to a new November record of 121,987 MW on the evening of Nov. 18, beating out a record set last year of 114,699 MW.
- Surging demand sent real-time prices in some PJM zones above $100/MWh and had state regulators and utilities calling for conservation.
- The spike in demand is a wakeup call after last winter's Polar Vortex stretched PJM's grid to the limit and sent forced outage rates soaring. But the record demand doesn't come close to the grid's all-time peak of 165,492 MW in the summer of 2011.
Dive Insight:
Much attention has been put on PJM's preparedness for the coming winter, and the grid operator seems to have survived the first test unscathed. Customers, however, may feel the pain in coming weeks due to record November prices on the grid due to a spike in demand.
"PJM has been taking steps to prepare for the winter season, including more testing of generating equipment beforehand, improving operating procedures and improving coordination with the gas pipeline industry," the operator said.
Last winter in January temperatures in PJM's territory dropped to -15 degrees Fahrenheit across two days and the operator reported a forced outage rate of 22% with about 40,200 MW offline. The operator has indicated it is ready for this winter and expects to meet demand without much difficulty, but has warned that when the EPA's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule goes into effect next year it will take offline about 8,000 MW of coal-fired power.
