By Arianna Whitehair
Everyone knows with the holiday season comes a multitude of dazzling Christmas lights, brightly lit decorations and a need for warmth as the cold, wintry weather sets in. In December 2022, an extreme, unprecedented drop in temperature forced excessive use of indoor heat by consumers and strained the regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states, including West Virginia and the District of Columbia. This RTO, known as PJM Interconnection, traces its name to the abbreviation for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, where the first utilities joined together.
“PJM traces its roots to 1927 when three utilities, realizing the reliability benefits and cost efficiencies possible by interconnecting to share their generating resources, formed the world’s first connecting power pool,” says Asim Haque, vice president of state and member services for PJM.
Today, PJM has more than 1,000 members. The largest wholesale electricity market in the world, PJM works behind the scenes to coordinate and direct the flow of electricity to keep the lights on for 65 million consumers.
“PJM does not own power lines or generators. Instead, it is a profit-neutral, regulated organization that directs the operation of power lines and generators,” says Haque. “PJM’s most important job is maintaining grid reliability, and we are committed to strengthening the reliability and long-term resilience of the grid under a wide range of extreme scenarios, including the severe winter weather we have recently seen in other parts of the country.”
Many West Virginians may remember receiving a message from Appalachian Power around Christmastime about the importance of reducing electricity usage to ensure the grid was able to continue running efficiently. Appalachian Power and other utilities in the PJM region anticipated the energy demand to increase during this period as families gathered for Christmas celebrations and the frigid temperatures lingered.
While the Mountain State was fortunate not to endure a blackout, other states in the Appalachian region were not so lucky. While PJM did not have electricity interruptions, Tennessee experienced a series of rolling blackouts around the same time, leaving thousands of residents without power in the midst of below-freezing weather conditions. Though Tennessee is not included in the PJM footprint, this story serves to reiterate the importance of conserving power and doing our part while also opening our eyes to the potential detrimental effects of rolling outages.
“The extreme arctic weather event on Christmas Day tested the resiliency of the region’s grid and negatively affected all power generation sources,” says Rebecca McPhail, president of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association (WVMA). “Preliminary indications show PJM underestimated demand, and the grid saw 23% of its total capacity forced offline, including nearly 40% of coal and nuclear generation.”
Haque says more than 70% of all forced outages were from natural gas generators, whether due to equipment failure, weather-related issues or fuel supply problems.
According to Chris Hamilton, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, the existing coal plants were called upon to more than double their output during the December storm. Since extreme temperatures like those experienced in December put an immense strain on the grid, why didn’t PJM fail?
“Coal-based electric generation accounts for 21% of the nation’s energy mix but accounted for 47% of the additional power needed during the storm,” says Hamilton. “In the PJM market, coal plants provided 50% of the additional energy needed during the cold temperature, despite being only 24% of the installed capacity in the footprint of the RTO.”
Haque says numerous states and regions throughout the U.S. are not part of an RTO or similar entity known as an independent system operator (ISO).
“These areas are served by individual utilities responsible for the reliability of their systems and regulated by respective state public utility commissions,” he says.
While the exact cause of the generator outages is still being investigated, McPhail says this event confirmed three things: one, the importance of a balanced grid; two, the need for pipeline infrastructure to better connect natural gas supply to demand; and three, the need for additional natural gas power generation capacity.
“Overreliance on a single power generation source is a risk for reliability, affordability and the means to reducing power sector emissions,” she says. “Expanding natural gas generation in West Virginia brings demand closer to supply, helps diversify West Virginia’s generation mix and brings added reliable, affordable and low-emissions capacity to PJM’s broader fuel mix.”
Although PJM has never experienced interruptions, if the grid would fail at some point in the future, detrimental, long-lasting effects would occur. For example, a winter storm in Texas in February 2021 left the state’s grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, unable to perform and dozens of people lost their lives as a result of no electricity.
“If the grid fails us, we will first experience planned rotating outages then rolling blackouts for a relatively short period before a total failure, which requires days, if not weeks, to correct,” says Hamilton. “Our culture, economy, health care and safety are so dependent on electricity that catastrophic consequences would result in just a few days.”
As for the many challenges facing PJM today, McPhail says that reliable and affordable energy are critical to manufacturing.
“As large consumers of energy, dependability and cost are a significant factor in the success and profitability of our industry,” she says. “While West Virginia remains nearly 90% powered by coal, other states in PJM are taking coal generation offline in favor of renewables and other forms of energy. West Virginia has the capacity to support the broader PJM grid and provide economic development and job opportunities for the state.”
However, to ensure a total grid failure never happens, Hamilton says that we should be wary to hasten a low-carbon economy.
“We need to pause our rush to a zero-carbon economy and preserve our baseload electric generation assets until such a time that renewables and other energy forms can operate with stored power consistently under higher loads,” he says. “The system in West Virginia has in place a predominance of coal-fired generation complimented with gas peaking plants and a small spread of wind generation that fits our state’s energy needs.”
According to Haque, PJM is fuel neutral—its mission is to keep power flowing and the lights on, and the markets will help determine the most cost-effective way to make that happen, without any favor to a particular technology or fuel type.
The retirement of thermal generators such as coal, oil or natural gas, whether driven by economics or state or federal policy, have the potential to impact the reliable operation of the electrical grid if not matched by replacement generation that can support reliability, Haque says. That’s why PJM is actively working with state and federal agencies and stakeholders to ensure a reliable and cost-effective transition to a lower-carbon system, as mandated by government policies.
Another challenge currently facing the power industry is the ongoing workforce shortage. While the damaging, widespread effects are being felt across every major industry in the nation, the WVMA is working diligently to combat this shortage in a few different ways.
“The WVMA founded the WVMA Education Fund in 2014, taking a hands-on approach to building a talent pipeline for the manufacturing industry in West Virginia,” McPhail says. “In 2015, the organization launched the Explore the New Manufacturing Program, which provides education on careers available in the manufacturing industry as well as educational and training pathways available to pursue those careers. The school-based program connects middle and high school students with local manufacturers for a variety of program activities.”
Along with its local impact, the WVMA is also making strides on a national level.
“Legislatively, the WVMA is very active in developing and supporting policies aimed at providing access to education and skills development to West Virginians,” says McPhail. “The WVMA vocally supported legislation to create the West Virginia Invests Grant Program, which provides last dollar in support for attending one of the state’s community and technical colleges for qualified students. We are also engaged in identifying and supporting policies that would provide a path to dual artists or credentialing for high school students.”
As for the active recruitment of workers, manufacturers are offering everything from retention bonuses to increased wages.
“It varies by manufacturing sector, skills level and geography,” McPhail says. “Companies are providing bonuses for employee referrals and using social media to advertise positions. Companies are partnering with our community and technical college systems to develop programs that focus on high demand skills and offer opportunities to receive on the job training while pursuing degrees or credentialing.”
