The United States Department of Energy (“DOE”) issued to Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC (“Duke”) an Emergency Order (“EO”) to what is described as potential grid shortfall issues in the southeast United States. See Department of Energy Order No. 202-25-5.
The EO provides that Duke can utilize specified electric generating units located within its area to operate at their maximum generation output levels due to:
- Ongoing extreme weather conditions.
- Need to preserve the reliability of bulk electric power.
- Shortage of electric energy.
- Shortage of facilities for the generation of electric energy.
That the EO is issued pursuant to Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, citing U.S.C. § 824a(c).
Duke’s service territory is stated to be impacted by a ridge of high pressure that will stall over the eastern United States resulting in elevated ambient temperatures combined with high humidity for many eastern power pools. As a result, the combination of heat and humidity is expected to result in a significant increase in demand for electricity on the Duke Energy system. The conditions are stated to be expected to begin on June 23, 2025, and extend through June 25, 2025.
Duke has indicated that:
- Approximately 1,500 MW of generating units are currently in outage or derated.
- Other units may be limited in their availability by conditions and limitations in their environmental permits.
These issues are cited as potentially resulting in the utility not having sufficient generation available to what is described as unusually high demand. Therefore, the EO states that the utility may have to curtail load in order to maintain security and reliability of the grid.
The EO includes a description of mitigation measures that Duke has undertaken to reduce load, which are stated to include:
- Public conservation appeals encouraging customers to reduce usage.
- Curtailing all recallable energy sales.
- Implementation of load management program.
- Notification of wholesale customers to implement in-kind load management programs.
- Exhausted its ability to obtain more power through other means.
The EO directs Duke to dispatch:
…dispatch such unit or units and to order their operation only as needed to maintain the necessary generation.
Such units are identified in the Order 202-25-5 Resource List.
A copy of the EO can be downloaded here.
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