READY FOR SUMMER
Bring it on: Operator of country’s largest electrical grid says it can meet demand
LOWER PROVIDENCE >> When summer temperatures rise, residents and business owners want to be sure their air conditioners and lights are going to work when they’re needed.
On Monday, PJM Interconnection — the operator of the country’s largest electric grid — said it has enough power to meet anticipated peak summer demand for the 65 million people it serves.
As part of its annual summer assessment, PJM planners and operators predict that hot summer weather is expected to drive electricity use to a peak of 153,000 megawatts — enough to power as many as 153 million homes.
“As far as preparing for the summer, that process begins long in advance. It’s years in the making to prepare for each year. We have a 15-year planning horizon, where we do planning and make sure the future system will be reliable and able to adequately serve the needs of the region,” said PJM president and CEO Andy Ott.
PJM interconnection, which is based in Lower Providence, works “behind the scenes” to coordinate the movement of electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia.
“We’re not your local utility — we’re not a power generator, we don’t own transmission lines and we don’t operate for profit. We are an organization that operates on behalf of the utilities and members of PJM,” Ott said.
Ott added that there are currently about 35 transmission owning utilities that are part of PJM, operating on a regional basis and working together to plan for maintenance and operating situations. Among the members are PECO, Met-Ed, PPL Corp., PSE&G and Delmarva Power.
“Reliability is something we take very seriously as part of the value we provide as a region and an entity,” he added. “Keeping the lights on and keeping power available to air conditioners and other things like that is vital to the economy of the nation.”
PJM’s mission is to meet that electricity need by procuring enough resources to satisfy peak demand plus required reserves at the lowest reasonable cost through its competitive markets and working with its members to ensure the grid can reliably move power to where it’s needed now and years from now, according to a press release.
Mike Bryson, vice president, operations for PJM, said summer planning includes looking at all the potential summer conditions, to make sure supplies are adequately planned.
He explained that summer demand rises during the day, and peaks late in the day — usually 5 or 6 p.m. As demand rises, “that’s where we need to make sure the generation resources are on. So we’re kind of adding resources or taking resources off,” Bryson said, adding that one of the things that can shift the level of demand is weather. PJM has a staff meteorologist that looks at weather across the PJM footprint.
“One of the unique things about summer demand is the significant amount of air conditioning. The air conditioning really drives a lot of demand,” Bryson said, adding that during the first couple of hot days, people might leave their air conditioning off during the day, and then turn it on in the evening.
“As we see multiple hot days the AC stays on. That’s where you see the load build up. We will see peak days when we have hot days across the entire footprint for multiple days at a time,” he added.
PJM is required to maintain reserves in case demand is higher than forecasted or generation is unexpectedly unavailable. The required reserve margin is 16.6 percent. This season, PJM will operate with a reserve margin of 29 percent, or nearly 42,000 megawatts.
In addition PJM has 185,804 megawatts of installed generating capacity available for the summer season. If needed, it also may draw upon more than 9,120 megawatts of demand response resources, customers who are willing to curb their usage on request during peak times.
Bryson added that PJM coordinates with neighboring grids, conducts training with member company staff and runs an annual summer emergency procedure drill.
“We coordinate with all state agencies, state utilities commissions, PJM member companies and state emergency management and we go through a typical summer day and run through all the emergency procedures in a tabletop drill. At the end of the day we do a ‘lessons learned’ with all the parties,” he said.
This year’s drill is scheduled for Tuesday, May 9.
Last summer, demand peaked at 151,907 megawatts on Aug. 11, the first time PJM met a peak need of more than 150,000 megawatts without requiring emergency actions. The highest use of power in PJM was nearly 166,000 megawatts in 2006.
PJM Interconnection, founded in 1927, ensures the reliability of the highvoltage electric power system serving 65 million people in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. With its 650 employees, PJM coordinates and directs the operation of the region’s transmission grid, which includes over 82,000 miles of transmission lines; administers a competitive wholesale electricity market; and plans regional transmission expansion improvements to maintain grid reliability and relieve congestion. PJM’s regional grid and market operations produce annual savings of $2.8 billion to $3.1 billion. For the latest news about PJM, visit PJM Inside Lines at insidelines.pjm.com.