Largest US power grid PJM escalates emergency actions to avoid blackouts

By Tim McLaughlin

July 3 (Reuters) – Largest U.S. power grid operator PJM said on Friday it was under a federal alert to cut electricity consumption across its territory as it battled generator outages, massive overloading on its transmission lines and a surge in air conditioning use from prolonged sweltering heat.

PJM said it told utilities to reduce electricity to customers who are under contract to reduce consumption during emergencies. PJM serves 67 million people in the Mid-Atlantic, South and Washington, D.C., area.

Spot wholesale electricity prices in northern Virginia, home to the largest collection of data centers in the world, have surged beyond $2,000 per megawatt hour this week. That compares to about $40 per MWh when PJM is not in distress.

The surge in prices is mostly because it has become expensive to provide power across congested high-voltage power lines, according to industry analysts and PJM’s operations data.

(Reporting by Tim McLaughlin and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Bill Berkrot)