Just over the state border in Norristown, Pa. is PJM, the operator that manages the electrical grid to which New Jersey’s power companies connect.
“PJM operates the grid for 60 million people from the state of Pennsylvania down to North Carolina and as far west as Chicago,” said Adam Keech, PJM’s Director of Dispatch. “The grid itself is what you see when you look out and see the tall A-Frame towers with high voltage power lines; PJM is responsible for the reliable operation, planning of those facilities, especially on hot days like today.”
In preparation for excessively warms day like today, the planning begins at least a week in advance to ensure residents are getting the cool air they need. It’s a 24/7 operation inside a PJM control room with monitors and maps indicating electricity flows on transmission lines, how much generators are outputting, and a constant monitoring of the weather.
With everyone wanting to run their air conditioners on a hot day like today, PJM’s operations are certainly impacted. But Keech says PJM has resources at their disposal that they normally don’t use.
“We schedule enough generation on the system enough of those supply resources to meet all those expected needs. We’re looking at generators that we don’t typically run that we may need to run just because the consumption of power is going to be so high.”
According to Keech, the all-time peak from last summer was over 158,000 megawatts. “Now keep in mind a megawatt is enough to power 1,000 homes at any given time. so you’re talking about quite a huge amount of power consumption,” explained Keech.
When energy consumption expectation is set high, energy providers urge residents to conserve energy by:
- turning off everything you’re not using;
- running air conditioners on the highest comfortable temperature;
- closing blinds on windows facing the sun;
- closing doors leading to uncooled parts of the home;
- refraining from using nonessential appliances; and
- using dimmers and timers on lighting.
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