Overview
- PJM asked for emergency relief on October 11 and the Department of Energy issued an order that takes effect Tuesday and remains in place through October 16 to bolster grid reliability.
- The order authorizes PJM to require designated power plants to operate and to unlock and deploy backup generation at large sites including data centers and industrial facilities.
- PJM and DOE describe the action as precautionary and say it does not schedule rolling blackouts now, though the operator may request voluntary conservation or demand-response if conditions tighten.
- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved PJM’s plan for a registry of data centers but rejected the operator’s separate proposal to temporarily disconnect those facilities during peak demand.
- The short-term intervention responds to a convergence of unseasonably warm weather, scheduled seasonal maintenance and transmission limits and highlights longer-term strains from rising demand for electricity, including growth in AI and hyperscale data centers.