– A heat wave continues to blast the Midwest, Northeast, and South through the end of the work week, forcing the largest US grid operator to declare a level one emergency for Thursday as tens of millions of people crank up air conditioners to escape scorching temperatures as summer in the Northern Hemisphere peaks.
On Wednesday evening, PJM Interconnection LLC declared an Energy Emergency Alert Level 1 in 13 states that stretch from Illinois to New Jersey with over 65 million customers. PJM is concerned about maintaining adequate power reserves on Thursday as power demand is set to soar because of air conditioners. It expects demand to reach 153,286 megawatts as of 1700 ET and has about 186,000 megawatts of generating capacity.