The US government has declared a power grid emergency affecting more than 60 million Americans as officials work to reduce the risk of outages across multiple states.
The Department of Energy (DOE) issued a temporary emergency order under the Federal Power Act, allowing regional grid operator PJM Interconnection to exceed standard pollution limits in an effort to maintain reliable electricity supplies.
PJM oversees the electricity network serving Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington DC.
The order took effect on Tuesday and is scheduled to remain in place through Friday, following a sudden, unseasonably warm rise in temperatures.
AccuWeather forecasters said temperatures across the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic are expected to climb into the 70s and 80s, with all 13 states in PJM’s territory affected by the warm spell.
Officials warned that electricity demand could surge as millions of residents switch fans and air conditioners back on. The concern comes as PJM’s system already has several power plants and transmission lines offline for seasonal maintenance.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the emergency measure was designed to lower the threat of widespread blackouts across the Mid-Atlantic during this week’s heat surge.
Wright also accused the Biden administration of weakening the US electricity grid by limiting coal- and natural-gas power generation in favor of intermittent sources such as wind and solar, saying those policies had left the country more exposed to outages.
The US Department of Energy has issued an emergency order to prevent blackouts from hitting up to 13 states this week (Stock Image)
“This order will help ensure millions of American families and businesses across the mid-Atlantic have access to affordable, reliable, and secure electricity by making additional power generation, including backup power, available to use as needed,” Wright said in a statement.
The energy secretary also criticized the previous DOE leadership, alleging that its policies had left the country in a precarious position by increasing reliance on less dependable sources of electricity.
“While past leaders’ energy subtraction policies have made the grid more vulnerable to the risk of blackouts when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow, this administration remains committed to using every available tool to prevent blackouts,” he added Monday.
PJM is a nonprofit organization responsible for managing the regional power grid across the Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley and Northeast. It coordinates with local electric companies to help keep electricity flowing reliably between states.
PJM said on social media that the DOE order would “not require any action from customers.” Residents therefore have not been asked to reduce their electricity use during the temporary emergency.
A PJM spokesperson told Newsweek that the strained grid conditions were being driven by increased electricity consumption at the same time as numerous generators were undergoing servicing ahead of winter.
The spokesperson said major transmission projects had also forced some power lines to be taken offline for safety reasons, reducing the number of systems available to meet the week’s unexpectedly high demand.
Issued under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, the special order permits power plants to exceed annual limits on pollutants including nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), particulate matter (PM) and ammonia.
PJM Interconnection has been ordered to exceed emissions limits in order to prevent power outages in the Mid-Atlantic states as temperatures rise and energy demands increases
Pollution produced during the emergency will not be included in the power companies’ emissions limits for the year.
The order also gives PJM authority to direct certain power plants—primarily natural-gas facilities, along with some oil- and coal-fired plants—to restart if needed, even when those facilities would normally remain offline because of pollution regulations.
Normally, the DOE order is issued as a measure of last resort to prevent rolling blackouts.
It is typically ordered to prevent the country from reaching an ‘Energy Emergency Alert Level 3,’ the highest and most serious level of emergency alert related to the nation’s electrical grid.
That means a power grid operator has exhausted all other options and is at the point of needing to start controlled outages to keep the overall system from collapsing.
Since 2025, however, the Trump Administration has been using the emergency decree regularly to combat extreme summer heat waves and winter storms or cold snaps, where Americans will be using more energy than normal – straining the grid.
While the DOE only issued this same order about 20 times between 2000 and 2024, the Trump Administration has declared a power grid emergency more than 60 times in the last two years.
The DOE has also been using the order to prevent certain power plants from shutting down permanently, which has drawn lawsuits from states and environmental groups, arguing the emergency is being misused.
In September, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that the DOE had exceeded the law’s emergency powers by using Section 202(c) to keep open the JH Campbell coal plant in Michigan.
