A vehicle equipped with a snowplow clears snow as Winter Storm Fern arrives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., January 23, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS/Nick Oxford

U.S. ‍electric grid operators
on Saturday stepped up precautions to avoid rotating blackouts,
as frigid weather hitting half of the country’s population
stressed their operations.

The PJM Interconnection – ​the largest U.S. regional grid
that serves 67 million people in the East and Mid-Atlantic –
reported temporary spikes ‌in spot wholesale electricity prices
that soared above $3,000 per megawatt hour on Saturday morning
from earlier levels of less ​than $200 per MWh.
PJM boosted its forecast for Tuesday, predicting an all-time
high for winter electricity demand at 147.2 gigawatts. That
would beat the current record of 143.7 GW set in January 2025.
Spot wholesale electricity prices across the U.S. were volatile
throughout Saturday, surging several times higher in New England
and the Midwest, for example, than during normal winter
operating conditions.

Spot prices on ISO New England, the grid for six states,
surged to nearly $600 per MWh, up sharply from Friday when
prices were below $100 MWh during parts of the day.
Meanwhile, older power plants, typically idled much of the year,
came online to take advantage of the elevated prices to ​serve
higher-than-expected demand, said Georg Rute, CEO of grid
software company Gridraven, and an expert on how weather affects
power line ⁠capacity.
“A 40-year-old gas turbine switches on because it sees these
super-high prices,” Rute told Reuters. He added it was a sign of
stress in the PJM system and elsewhere.

Snow falls over the Clara Luper National Sit-In Plaza as Winter Storm Fern arrives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., January 23, 2026.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS/Nick Oxford

Prices also soared in other regions as stormy weather and
temperatures hovering around 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius)
pushed up electricity demand and prompted some operators to ​shut
in natural gas production in key basins, while grid ⁠companies
also faced constraints on gas pipeline supply.

Dominion Energy, whose Virginia operations include the
largest collection of data centers in the world, said if its ice
forecast holds, it has the potential to be one of the largest
winter events to affect the utility’s operations.

While regional grid operators juggle restricted fuel
supplies, congested transmission lines and wild weather,
electric utilities are staging crews to ‌repair expected ice and
snow damage on low-voltage distribution lines that bring power
to homes and businesses.

GRIDS FACE STRAIN

Faced with ‌constricted gas supplies, regional U.S. grid
operators are asking coal and gas-fired power plants to boost
output, according to grid operations reports.

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator called on power
plants to maximize output and curtailed electricity ‍exports in a
territory that stretches across 15 states in the Midwest and
South and Manitoba, Canada.

Power Imports

Over the past 24 hours, MISO imported up to several thousand
megawatts of power from PJM’s territory to meet demand,
according to MISO’s operations reports.

PJM faces greater reliability threats in winter ‍because
natural gas plants – the backbone of its generation – frequently
face fuel supply constraints and mechanical freezing during
extreme cold, according to analysts at consulting firm ICF
International.

Emergency Action

Neighboring grid MISO issued an all-hands-on-deck emergency
action designed to avoid capacity shortfalls as some power
plants are forced offline or reduce their output because of
freezing temperatures. This alerted utilities to be prepared to
produce as much electricity as possible.
MISO spot wholesale electricity prices soared to above $400 per
MWh throughout the grid operator’s territory as the upper
Midwest experienced transmission bottlenecks across high-voltage
power lines. Electricity prices in MISO’s southern territory,
which were less than $50 per MWh earlier on Saturday, rose above
$200 per MWh in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, MISO
reported.

In New England, fuel oil generation kicked into high gear to
help the six-state region’s electric grid conserve natural gas,
its top fuel source.

As ⁠evening approached on Saturday, oil-fired generation
accounted for 38% of the New England grid’s output, compared
with a typical level of about 1% or less, ISO New England’s
operations display showed. Natural gas, usually the grid’s main
fuel ​source, accounted for 24% of the grid’s generation output.

TEXAS GRID TESTED

For the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the winter
storm is the biggest ⁠test for the state’s main grid operator
since 2021, when a storm nearly caused a catastrophic regional
blackout.

More than 200 people died as ERCOT lost about half of its
generation capacity amid frigid weather.

Since then, stricter state and federal rules have been
implemented to require better winter readiness by utilities and
grid operators throughout the country.

Rute said ERCOT appears to be in good shape as it has
abundant fossil-fuel generation, big contributions from wind and
solar power, and more battery storage than ⁠any other grid.

“I think there’s very little chance of a (2021) rerun,” he
said. “But no blackout happens the same way twice.”

Published on January 25, 2026