PJM reports adequate resources to meet summer demand

Valley Forge-based PJM Interconnection announced Thursday it anticipates having an adequate supply to meet the summer electricity demand this year.

However continuing generator retirements and increasing demand could erode reserve levels, the company said. Tighter reserves could mean the country’s largest electrical grid would need to use demand response or additional emergency procedures if extreme heat combines with significant generator outages, the company said.

“We plan throughout the year to make sure we have enough resources to serve load at the hottest time of the year,” PJM president and CEO Manu Asthana said. “But we are concerned that new generation is not coming online fast enough to replace retiring resources, and that subsequent years may be more challenging.”

Like other grid operators across the county, PJM is facing a loss of generation resources that is outpacing bringing new replacement resources online coupled with an acceleration in consumer electricity demand. PJM said has 182,500 MW of installed generating capacity down from 186,500 MW last year.

PJM projects higher peak demand for electricity this summer of approximately 151,000 MW compared to last year’s peak load of 147,000 MW. PJM’s all-time, one day highest power use 165,563 in the summer of 2006, officials said.

PJM’s footprint, which includes Pennsylvania as well as Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia, should see hotter and wetter weather this summer, according to the National Weather Service.