Energy Department Order Takes Aim at Mid-Atlantic Blackout Risk

Power grids are vulnerable to wild swings in weather, from crippling winter cold to oppressive summer heat. But unseasonably warm early fall weather has energy officials taking steps this week to reduce the risk of outages in some parts of the country. The Energy Department issued an order intended to make it easier for backup power to kick into gear in 13 Mid-Atlantic States and the District of Columbia, if needed, from Tuesday through Friday. On Wednesday, temperatures were in the upper 80s and 90s across a broad swath of the region, National Weather Service data showed . The order does not mean outages are expected or that an emergency is imminent . It is a precautionary tool, coming after a period of higher-than-normal temperatures in late August and September, as demand surged during the start of fall, when power plants are traditionally offline for maintenance. The energy secretary, Chris Wright, said the order would help ensure Americans have “secure electricity by making additional power generation, including backup power, available to use as needed.” What prompted the order? The emergency order was issued on Monday in response to an application by the grid operator PJM Interconnection, which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity to at least 67 million people in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia. “We’re sometimes called air traffic controllers of the power grid,” a company profile says. The order gives the grid operator the authority to tap into backup generators, like those using diesel, to be used to support power grids if needed. Such a step would be taken before issuing a level 3 emergency alert, in which customers are asked to use less power or PJM takes other steps to avoid grid failure, such as by issuing rolling blackouts. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in . Want all of The Times? Subscribe .