The Fuel-Mix Saving America’s Largest Grid From Blackouts Today

Power prices soared on Thursday across PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator serving 67 million people across 13 states, as a brutal multi-day heat dome pushed electricity demand toward critically high levels and raised the risk of rolling blackouts.

Ahead of triple-digit temperatures today across the Mid-Atlantic, including Washington, DC, Baltimore, and New York, PJM has declared a level 2 grid emergency and ordered emergency load reductions.

The alert, one step below a warning of imminent rolling blackouts, applied across PJM’s territory from Illinois to Washington, DC.

Under North American Electric Reliability Corp. definitions, an Energy Emergency Alert 2 means the grid operator can no longer meet expected requirements but is still maintaining minimum contingency reserves.

GridStatus data shows the PJM grid was kept afloat Thursday almost entirely by natural gas, nuclear, and coal. As of Friday morning, the three fuel sources were supplying more than 94% of the grid’s total power.

Wind and solar power generation were largely in the single digits when the grid needed reliable dispatchable power. This is an uncomfortable reality for the Democratic Party, which has become little more than a band of climate socialists hellbent on destabilizing the grid with an unreliable power mix. 

Average power prices across PJM are set to soar from late morning into late afternoon.

Current power prices (as of Friday morning):

Today’s load forecast will crest around 160.85 GW by late afternoon – the moment when everyone will have their ACs cranking.

So far, the PJM grid has held. But with a few more days of triple-digit heat ahead, the takeaway is clear: fossil fuels and nuclear power are keeping the lights on, AC units humming, and preventing rolling blackouts.

Do not let the Democratic Party, now unhinged climate socialists, claim otherwise. The real question is why these socialists, who project anti-American rhetoric daily, remain so committed to destabilizing the grid with de-growth climate policies when fossil fuel dispatchable power is what saves the grid during peak-demand crisis hours.