On June 30, the Department of Energy issued an emergency order for PJM, the largest power grid in the country.
Forecasters saw extreme heat colliding with the July 4th holiday and hitting demand at the worst possible moment.
Two days later, PJM ordered every generator to run flat out. Idle plants came back online. Operating reserves fell from 22 gigawatts in the morning to 5 gigawatts by evening, a hair above the grid's 3.2 gigawatt danger line.
By July 6, PJM said emergency conservation had likely kept the system just under an all-time demand record. Peak load hit roughly 162,700 megawatts, within reach of the grid's 2006 high of 165,600 megawatts.
That would have been the story on its own. Then the storms came. LaGuardia hit 104°F. New Jersey opened an investigation into 29 possible heat-related deaths. By July 6, some 370,000 customers were still sitting in the dark from storm damage layered on top of a heat emergency.
America does not have an AI problem. America has an electricity problem.
Why Washington Is Treating Power As A National Security Issue