Today (8/25) and Thursday (8/27) temperatures are expected to exceed 90° throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. There is a risk that a new Coincident Peak (CP) is set sometime this week. To do this, the electricity demand in PJM will need to exceed 141,865 MWs. Forecasters expect that today’s load will peak at 143,832 MWs by 5:00 PM. And on Thursday afternoon, the system-wide electric load could set the new peak demand day for 2020.
Figure 1 shows that while the actual electric load (red line) this morning was slightly below forecast (yellow line), temperatures are expected to rise rapidly in the afternoon and place additional strain on the grid. We recommend beginning curtailment by 3:00 PM if possible. However, afternoon thunderstorms could provide some relief and prevent today’s peak demand from becoming a 5CP demand day. We will keep you updated as conditions evolve throughout the day and the rest of this week.
Figure 1: PJM - Forecast and Actual MW, from 5
Reach out to your energy advisor or contact us for more details.