DOE Emergency Order Lets PJM Curtail 50 MW-Plus Data Centers to Backup Power During July Heat Wave

FERC & Federal Policy & Markets Regulatory
Marin Holt
June 30, 2026
0
2029
6 minutes read

DOE Emergency Orders: No. 202-26-33 and No. 202-26-32
Large-Load Curtailment Threshold: 50 MW
Authorization Period: June 30 to July 3, 2026
July 2 Preliminary Peak: 162,700 MW
Prior PJM Summer Record (2006): 165,563 MW

The U.S. Department of Energy authorized PJM Interconnection to curtail large data centers and shift them onto onsite backup generation during the first week of July, after a heat wave drove the mid-Atlantic grid to one of its highest-demand stretches on record. Energy Secretary Chris Wright signed two emergency orders, No. 202-26-33 and No. 202-26-32, on June 30, 2026 under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, acting on an application PJM filed June 27. The orders took effect at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on June 30 and ran through July 3, and PJM later secured extensions into the following week.

The backup-generation order lets PJM direct transmission owners to reduce any large load of at least 50 MW of peak demand at a single delivery point, the profile of a hyperscale data center, and switch it to its own generators as a last resort before or during an Energy Emergency Alert Level 3. The order exempts defense, homeland security, first-responder, air traffic control, hospital, 911 call center, water treatment, wastewater, and natural gas pipeline facilities. Curtailed sites must still meet environmental monitoring, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements “to the maximum extent feasible” while their backup units run.

PJM served a preliminary peak of 161,910 MW on July 1, its second-highest load day ever, then held demand to roughly 162,700 MW on July 2 by calling on about 6,000 MW of demand response. Both figures stayed below the grid operator’s all-time summer record of 165,563 MW, set in 2006, though PJM said underlying July 2 demand likely would have surpassed that mark without the curtailments. An official preliminary peak will not come for 60 days, the time PJM needs to measure how its demand-response resources performed. Heat indices reached 110°F in New York City and 113°F in Washington.

Critical Perspective

The order sets 50 MW as the peak-demand line above which PJM can force a hyperscale site onto its own generators, yet DOE has not disclosed how much of the roughly 6,000 MW of demand response it leaned on July 2 actually came from data-center backup rather than ordinary load curtailment. That gap matters because ERCOT, which faces the same data-center load surge in Texas, relies on voluntary large-flexible-load agreements instead of a federal emergency signal, leaving unsettled whether a 202(c) order is a durable tool or a one-summer improvisation. During Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022, DOE invoked the same Section 202(c) authority to let utilities run plants past their environmental permit limits, a precedent showing these orders trade air-quality rules for reliability under stress. If July heat like this becomes the annual norm and diesel generators at computing sites run through ozone season, who accounts for the emissions cost of keeping the servers online?

Why It Matters

This is the second time in seven weeks that DOE has reached for Section 202(c) to enlist data-center backup power in PJM, following a May 18 order during an earlier heat event. Federal energy officials now treat behind-the-meter generators at large computing sites as a grid resource, not private insurance, a precedent that reshapes how interconnection agreements and demand-response tariffs will treat the loads driving most of PJM’s queue growth. For data-center operators, a 50 MW peak is the line above which a federal emergency signal orders a switch to onsite power, tightening the reliability obligations that come with siting large computing load in a capacity-constrained market.