business
PJM Sets Record Peak Load of 168,158 Megawatts and Uses Emergency Orders to Keep Power On
The grid operator serving 65 million people across 13 states invoked federal emergency authority on July 2 to shift data centers to backup generators and allow power plants to exceed pollution limits. The step follows two earlier requests this year amid rising demand and elevated forced outages.
Jul 20, 9:54 PM·2m read1 source
ForbesAudio version
Tap play to generate a narrated version.
Developing·Limited corroboration so far. This page will refresh as more sources emerge.
PJM recorded an all-time peak load of 168,158 megawatts on July 2, 2026, during one of the hottest days on record. The grid operator serving 65 million people across 13 states requested federal emergency orders under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to keep the system stable.
The orders authorized utilities to move data centers onto their own backup generators and permitted power plants to exceed pollution limits.
PJM has now sought the same emergency authority three times since January 2026. Forbes reported that Section 202(c) orders have been invoked 43 times nationally in the 14 months through July 20, 2026, compared with 20 invocations over the prior nearly 50 years. On January 22, 2026, Secretary Chris Wright expanded the orders to include directing large customers to switch to backup generators.
Almost all of the added demand strain in Virginia traces to data centers. Northern Virginia hosts more data center capacity than the next five largest U.S. markets combined. Dominion Energy serves roughly 450 data centers in the state and holds a 70-gigawatt interconnection queue against an all-time system peak of 24.7 gigawatts.
Of that queue, 25 gigawatts carry projected connection dates through 2031 and 45 gigawatts remain under study. Forced generation outages in PJM ranged between 18,100 and 19,400 megawatts during the July 4th weekend, above the 12,800-megawatt average.
The Eddystone generating units in Pennsylvania, two 380-megawatt units installed between 1967 and 1970, have been ordered kept online past scheduled retirement dates.
