East Coast Power Surges as Heat Spurs Emergency Grid Alert (1)

Wholesale power prices surged as heat descended on the US East, prompting the region’s grid operator to declare a low-level emergency for Tuesday.

The operator of the grid from Washington to Chicago, PJM Interconnection LLC, issued a maximum generation emergency and load management alert for Tuesday, asking power plants to brace for high demand. The alert underscores how quickly power supplies can tighten when extreme heat strikes a region already grappling with rapid demand growth from data centers.

Meanwhile, the US Energy Department issued an emergency order that authorized PJM to deploy backup generation at data centers and other ...