Media365
The United States faced a double blow from extreme weather over the Independence Day weekend as severe storms knocked out electricity to more than 373,000 customers and an intense heat dome pushed power demand close to a historic high, forcing grid operators to activate emergency conservation measures.
According to outage tracker PowerOutage.us, more than 373,000 customers were still without power as of July 6, highlighting the twin challenge facing utilities as extreme weather battered parts of the country while soaring temperatures drove air-conditioning use to seasonal highs.
Pennsylvania was the worst-affected state, with more than 70,000 homes and businesses still without electricity. Michigan followed with around 64,155 outages, reflecting the widespread damage caused by storms that accompanied the intense summer heat.
Among utilities, FirstEnergy reported the largest number of outages, with approximately 59,775 customers without service. DTE Energy had the second-highest tally, affecting about 55,850 customers.
DTE Energy said its Storm Response Team was on track to restore power to 95 per cent of affected customers by the end of Sunday. By 5.29 pm EDT, the utility said electricity had already been restored to 97.5 per cent of its customers.
In Pennsylvania, PPL Electric Utilities reported about 51,012 customers without electricity, representing roughly 2.6 per cent of its customer base in the state.
FirstEnergy said its Jersey Central Power & Light unit had restored electricity to more than 300,000 customers following the storms. The company added that the remaining 40,000 outages were expected to be restored by Monday.
Con Edison also continued restoration work in New York, saying Yonkers, Mount Vernon, Rye and New Rochelle in Westchester County recorded the highest number of storm-related outages after severe weather struck during the July 4 holiday weekend. The utility expected to restore power to 95 per cent of affected customers in the county by Sunday evening.
Heat pushes power demand close to historic peak
The widespread outages came as a powerful “heat dome” settled over much of the eastern United States, sending temperatures soaring through the Independence Day weekend and forcing millions of households and businesses to crank up air conditioners.
The intense heat placed unprecedented pressure on the electricity system, particularly across the territory served by PJM Interconnection, the operator of the largest power grid in the United States.
PJM said emergency conservation measures likely prevented electricity demand from exceeding its all-time record, underscoring growing concerns about grid reliability during periods of extreme weather.
Preliminary data showed the grid’s peak instantaneous load reached approximately 162,700 megawatts (MW) between 5 pm and 6 pm on July 2—just shy of the all-time high of 165,600 MW set in 2006.
The operator said demand-response programmes, which pay participating customers to temporarily reduce electricity consumption during periods of peak demand, helped keep the system below record levels.
Without those emergency measures, PJM said electricity demand would likely have surpassed the previous record.
PJM, which supplies electricity to about 67 million people across the US Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, had warned ahead of the holiday weekend that demand could challenge or even exceed its historic summer peak as the heat intensified.
Data centres add to grid pressure
Electricity demand eased over the following days as temperatures moderated slightly and businesses remained closed for the holiday weekend.
Preliminary figures showed peak demand reached 154,976 MW on July 3, falling to 145,098 MW on July 4 and 134,332 MW on July 5.
The latest bout of extreme weather has once again highlighted mounting pressures on the US electricity grid, where rapidly growing power consumption from energy-intensive data centres is colliding with rising demand during heat waves.
Grid operators have repeatedly warned that the expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure and cloud computing facilities is significantly increasing electricity consumption, raising concerns over reliability during periods of peak demand and contributing to sharply higher prices in capacity markets designed to ensure adequate power supplies.
While utilities continue restoring service to hundreds of thousands of customers affected by the storms, energy experts say the combination of increasingly frequent extreme weather events and surging electricity demand is likely to place growing strain on the US power system in the years ahead.
