A federal emergency order covering Pennsylvania's power grid expires Friday, Oct. 16, after four days of precautionary measures to prevent blackouts across the mid-Atlantic region.
Whitemarsh, Plymouth and Whitpain townships fall within the service area of PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator covering 67 million people across 13 states and Washington, D.C. PECO Energy Company, the utility serving southeastern Pennsylvania, is among the distribution companies authorized to implement the order.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright signed the order Monday, Oct. 12, giving PJM authority to run backup generators beyond normal pollution limits and to direct data centers and other large electricity users onto backup power if needed.
PJM requested the emergency order after forecasting electricity demand at roughly 111,500 megawatts or higher on Tuesday, Oct. 13, with anticipated generation outages reaching about 61,591 megawatts across its territory, according to the Department of Energy's order. PJM forecast it would come within 900 megawatts of its reserve margin on Wednesday, Oct. 14.
The strain stems from two colliding problems. Unseasonably warm October temperatures drove up air-conditioning use at the same time power plants and transmission lines were offline for scheduled fall maintenance. Dominion Energy spokesperson Jeremy Slayton told Axios that temperatures were running 10 to 20 degrees above normal across PJM's territory.
PJM recalled all active generation maintenance outages across its service region effective at noon Wednesday, Oct. 14, to bring more capacity back online, according to a PJM operations update.
The Department of Energy said blackouts are not widely anticipated or imminent and called the order a precaution. A PJM spokesperson told Newsweek the grid operator does not expect impacts to customers and that no action is required from residents.
"Unseasonable weather patterns are providing fewer days to perform important maintenance or construction on the generation and transmission equipment serving our footprint," said Mike Bryson, PJM senior vice president of system operations, in an operations update posted Oct. 13.
The order temporarily lifts certain environmental permit restrictions, allowing power plants to exceed limits on sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and other pollutants during the emergency period. Emissions generated under the order will not count toward plants' rolling-average pollution caps, according to the DOE.
PJM said similar emergency orders were granted earlier in 2026, including in the Southwest over the summer, but the grid operator has not needed to direct large electricity users to switch to backup generation so far.
As Patch noted, the emergency comes amid broader debate over strain that artificial intelligence data centers place on the electrical grid.
The order expires Friday, Oct. 16. PJM said additional measures could be necessary depending on grid conditions, and any renewal must be requested before the current order lapses.
