Thursday, July 21, 2011

PJM Heats Up Record Peak Demand

PJM, the largest wholesale electricity market in the world, peaked today at 158,704 megawatts, and that would be a new record, with adjustments for major expansion of the PJM service since August 2, 2006 when the previous record was set.

PJM has not yet officially announced that a new record was set in today's triple digit heat, but it had said any demand beyond 158,448 megawatts would be a new record. Today's peak was 256 megawatts higher than that mark.

PJM has 180,400 megawatts of generation capacity plus 10,000 to 15,000 megawatts of demand response.

PJM also is interconnected with neighboring systems and has substantial import ability, including from Canada. PJM's strong import ability and its robust interconnection with neighboring systems is a major strength that Texas does not have. Texas is almost an electricity island.

Congratulations to PJM, the electricity generators that now include thousands of small solar systems, electricity utilities, and the demand response providers for keeping the lights on in the record heat and demand.

Today was not an easy day, but PJM may have been the only one not sweating from Chicago to New Jersey.

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