PJM has issued a Cold Weather Alert for its Western Region for Jan. 14–16 ahead of expected frigid weather.
A Cold Weather Alert is a routine procedure PJM issues in advance of significantly cold weather conditions expected for all or parts of the region PJM serves.
When issued, PJM communicates with generation owners to tell them to be prepared to call in additional staff to get all units running for when electricity use begins to increase. Generation owners must take extra care to maintain equipment so that it does not freeze in the cold and are reminded to provide updated information to PJM on limitations to their units, including time required to start and the max and min times that their units can run once started.
A Cold Weather Alert can also be used to defer or reschedule planned generation maintenance outages and/or transmission outages and/or recall transmission/generator outages, if necessary.
The Western Region in PJM is made up of the following transmission zones and control areas:
- AES Ohio – formerly Dayton Power & Light
- American Electric Power (AEP Ohio, Appalachian Power, Indiana Michigan Power and Kentucky Power)
- American Municipal Power Transmission
- ComEd
- Cleveland Public Power
- Duke Energy Ohio and Duke Energy Kentucky
- Duquesne Light Company
- East Kentucky Power Cooperative
- FirstEnergy South – formerly Allegheny Power Systems (West Penn Power, Mon Power, Potomac Edison)
- FirstEnergy West – formerly American Transmission Systems, Inc. (Penn Power, Ohio Edison, The Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison)
- Ohio Valley Electric Corporation
Original Story (Jan. 10): Cold Weather Advisory Issued for Jan. 14–16 for PJM’s Western Region
PJM has issued a Cold Weather Advisory for its Western Region for Jan. 14–16 ahead of expected cold weather.
When PJM expects significantly cold weather to impact all or parts of the PJM footprint, it issues a Cold Weather Advisory to provide a two-to-five-day notice that forecast temperatures may call for a Cold Weather Alert. This is meant to give generation owners ample time to proactively prepare their units to operate during pending cold weather and to provide information to PJM about their operating availability, capabilities and limitations to help PJM operators plan for the extreme weather.
Temperatures are expected to reach the single digits in PJM’s Western Region during the Jan. 14–16 period, which will drive up the demand for electricity in that area.
A separate Cold Weather Alert currently in effect for PJM’s Western Region will expire at 11:59 p.m. Jan. 10.
The Western Region in PJM is made up of the following transmission zones and control areas:
- AES Ohio – formerly Dayton Power & Light
- American Electric Power (AEP Ohio, Appalachian Power, Indiana Michigan Power and Kentucky Power)
- American Municipal Power Transmission
- ComEd
- Cleveland Public Power
- Duke Energy Ohio and Duke Energy Kentucky
- Duquesne Light Company
- East Kentucky Power Cooperative
- FirstEnergy South – formerly Allegheny Power Systems (West Penn Power, Mon Power, Potomac Edison)
- FirstEnergy West – formerly American Transmission Systems, Inc. (Penn Power, Ohio Edison, The Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison)
- Ohio Valley Electric Corporation
PJM Winter Preparations
PJM, the grid operator for 13 states and the District of Columbia, expects to have approximately 179,800 MW of resources to meet the forecasted peak demand of approximately 141,200 MW, plus a forecast average of about 5,500 MW of electricity exports to neighboring systems. The system should also remain reliable under several more extreme and less likely scenarios involving lower levels of gas and/or renewable generation, higher electricity demand or increased exports, but extreme weather scenarios may require the use of emergency procedures.
Each year, PJM performs winter readiness assessments in advance of the cold weather months, collecting data on fuel inventory, supply and delivery characteristics, emissions limitations, and minimum operating temperatures. PJM meets with federal and state regulators and neighboring systems to review winter preparations. PJM also conducts weekly operational review meetings with major natural gas pipeline operators serving generators in the PJM footprint to coordinate operations with the pipelines that supply a large portion of the gas generation fleet. PJM and its members also conduct a cold weather operations drill ahead of each winter.
Additionally, ahead of this winter, PJM will schedule site visits to generation resources along with ReliabilityFirst and SERC, two of the six regional organizations that audit reliability standards on behalf of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).
In 2023, PJM and the Independent Market Monitor developed and published guidance for generators (PDF) on how best to provide timely and accurate information about their operating parameters and availability during periods of natural gas pipeline operating restrictions.
PJM’s all-time winter peak was 143,295 MW, set on Feb. 20, 2015.