Audubon’s PJM Interconnection said it successfully maintained grid reliability through extreme winter and summer weather in 2025, even as electricity demand reached record levels across its service area, according to ROI-NJ.
PJM manages the nation’s largest power grid and serves 67 million people across 13 states and Washington, D.C. It reported setting new winter demand records during a January Arctic outbreak. At its peak, electricity demand surged to roughly 143,700 megawatts, surpassing a previous cold-weather record set in 2015. Simultaneously, PJM exported power to help stabilize neighboring grids.
Officials credited improved winter preparedness and coordination with member utilities, including early generator testing, proactive fuel commitments, and enhanced load forecasting. PJM entered the 2025–26 winter season with more than 180,000 megawatts of available capacity, enough to meet reliability standards despite tightening reserve margins.
Extreme weather wasn’t limited to winter. A June heat wave produced PJM’s third- and fourth-highest summer demand peaks on record, highlighting year-round pressure on the grid. At the same time, renewable energy continued to grow, with solar generation hitting a PJM record in April and more than 2 gigawatts of new solar capacity added in 2025.
To learn more about PJM’s continued efforts to offer reliable energy, visit ROI-NJ.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on MONTCO.Today in January 2026.
