No advisories from Delmarva Power
Grid operator PJM has extended its Hot Weather Alert for its Mid-Atlantic and Southern regions through July 13. Temperatures are expected to stay above 90 degrees on both days. The region includes Delmarva Power.
So far, Delmarva Power has not issued any advisories or used its peak energy feature that raises thermostat temperatures for those participating in the program. It also rewards all residential customers who cut consumption during a peak period. Temperatures in the 90s are not unusual this time of year.
PJM previously issued a Hot Weather Alert for the regions for Wednesday, July 12.
A Hot Weather Alert helps to prepare transmission and generation personnel and facilities for extreme heat and/or humidity that may cause capacity problems on the grid.
In addition to Delmarva, the Mid-Atlantic region is made up of the Atlantic City Electric, Baltimore Gas and Electric Jersey Central Power & Light, Met-Ed, Penelec, PECO Energy, Pepco, PPL Electric Utilities, PSE&G, and Orange & Rockland (Rockland Electric Company) transmission zones.
The PJM Southern region consists of Dominion Virginia Power’s service territory.
As of July 11, PJM expects to serve a forecasted load of approximately 139,000 megawatts on July 12 and 138,800 MW on July 13.
The PJM system struggled to meet demand during a brief period of low temperatures around the 2022 Christmas holiday, due to operating problems with gas and coal-fired plants. Peak power demand in the PJM region occurs in the summer months and the grid operator says it has adequate supplies of reserve power.
Delmarva has continued to strengthen its grid and has reduced the number of outages.
Earlier, PJM advised the owner of the Indian River power plant in Sussex County to keep the state’s only coal-fired generator in operation for a few years in order to maintain the stability of the grid. NRG complied, with ratepayers paying extra on their utility bills to reimburse NRG for losses. NRG earlier disclosed plans to close the plant, citing lower wholesale prices that made the unit unprofitable.
