FERC and NERC Report 49,700 MW of Eastern Outages in January, and No Data Center Backup Was Used
- Analysis Data Centers Grid Connection & Reliability
Marin Holt
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- 8 minutes read
- Eastern Interconnection peak outages: 49,700 MW
- ERCOT peak outages: 19,420 MW
- DOE emergency orders issued: 15
- U.S. peak electric use: 666 GW
Staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corp reported on September 10 that peak power plant outages across the Eastern Interconnection reached about 49,700 MW during January 2026 cold weather. That figure is down from 90,500 MW during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022. In the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, outages peaked near 19,420 MW, against about 35,300 MW during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021. Neither region shed firm load, even as United States electric use peaked at 666 GW.
The report covers Winter Storm Fern in late January and Winter Storm Gianna, which ran from January 30 to February 2. Texas lost power plants and gas supply together during Uri in 2021. The Texas Department of State Health Services attributed 246 deaths to that storm, mostly from cold exposure.
Fifteen emergency orders, and no data center generator
During Fern and Gianna the Department of Energy issued 15 emergency orders under the Federal Power Act. The orders let grid operators direct backup generation at large loads as a last resort before blackouts. DOE had never issued that kind of order before.
Nobody used them on data centers. Robert Clark, an engineer in FERC’s Office of Electric Reliability, told the commission that no one called on backup generation at data centers or other large loads during the 2026 storms.
The Texas order shows how far ahead of the need the authority ran. DOE issued it on January 24 under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act. It authorized ERCOT to deploy backup generation at data centers and other major facilities, and DOE put national unused backup generation at more than 35 GW. ERCOT then reported that it never called for conservation, never issued an Energy Emergency Alert, and saw no systemwide outages during Fern. The grid operator listed the DOE orders among preparations “obtained in advance of potential emergency operations.”
Clark said most electric entities accept that backup generation at large loads could help during extreme cold. He also said open questions remain. Operators do not know whether most large loads run grid power and backup generation at the same time. They also lack a settled way for large loads to report backup capability to system operators.
Why It Matters
Data center operators now sit inside federal emergency planning whether or not they asked to. The 15 orders set a precedent that grid operators will reach for again in the next deep freeze. Two practical questions decide what that precedent is worth. A site that cannot run its generators in parallel with grid service gives an operator nothing at the moment of need. A site that never told anyone what it has on hand is invisible to dispatch. Operators who answer both questions before the next cold snap keep the choice about their own load. Those who wait will have it made for them under an order written in an emergency.
What the report does not settle
An authority that goes unused proves nothing about whether it works. The 2026 storms never reached the emergency stage that would have triggered a call on data center generators. The orders therefore stand untested in the field. FERC and NERC staff still flagged gaps in electric and gas coordination, load forecasting and infrastructure. Kent Mottice, an analyst in FERC’s Office of Energy Market Regulation, said electric and gas entities agree that more gas storage and pipeline transportation capacity would improve reliability during Arctic cold.
Transfers between regions carried much of the load instead. Imports into the Midcontinent Independent System Operator peaked near 9 GW, mostly from PJM Interconnection but also from Canada and other neighbors. Florida exported power during Fern and imported during Gianna. FERC Commissioner Lindsay See said meeting historic demand without manual load shed shows progress in cold weather preparation, fuel readiness and coordination.
Critical Perspective
The comparison flatters the result. Both benchmarks in this report, the 90,500 MW lost during Elliott and the 35,300 MW lost during Uri, are the two worst generator failures of the modern American winter. Measuring 49,700 MW and 19,420 MW against them shows improvement from a catastrophic baseline, not proof that the fleet now holds under the worst case. Fern and Gianna never pushed either region to firm load shed, so the 2026 system was never tested at the severity that produced those older numbers.
The report also credits interregional transfers, and that is a dependency rather than a hardening. MISO imported about 9 GW, mostly from PJM. Florida exported during Fern and imported during Gianna. Both cases worked because the neighbor had surplus at the hour of need. A storm that puts PJM and MISO under peak stress at the same time removes the resource the report names as decisive. Nothing in these results shows what happens then, and the 15 emergency orders that would have covered the gap went uncalled, so their real world performance remains unknown.
Sources
- Utility Dive: Unplanned power plant outages fall sharply during 2025/26 winter storms: FERC-NERC report (Sept. 11, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Energy: Energy Secretary Issues Emergency Order to Secure Texas Grid Amid Winter Storm Fern (Jan. 24, 2026)
- ERCOT: Post-Event Report, Winter Storm Fern (Jan. 28, 2026)
