Largest US grid pushes power plants to secure gas through week

Naureen S. Malik, Bloomberg News on Jan 25, 2026

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The largest U.S. grid operator is pushing power plants to secure natural gas supplies through the week amid expectations that frigid temperatures will drive electricity usage to a winter record.

PJM Interconnection LLC is taking a rare step of committing to buy power from generators through 10am on Jan. 31, as opposed to its typical method of making day-ahead purchases, staff said in a weather briefing with members Sunday evening. The commitments will allow power plants to proactively procure gas supplies even as curtailed production and rising demand lift prices to the highest since 2022.

PJM, which manages the grid serving nearly a fifth of Americans from the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic, also asked dual-fuel generators to procure and burn gas supplies to preserve oil for later in the week, according to staff. Soaring gas prices have made it more economic to burn oil on the East Coast, and the fuel was producing about 5.8 gigawatts Sunday evening, or 4.6% of the generation mix, PJM data show.

U.S. grids are taking extraordinary measures this week to avoid blackouts as an Arctic blast delivers freezing air across most of the continental U.S., boosting heating demand and freezing equipment that produces the natural gas.

Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based PJM said peak demand may top 130 gigawatts for seven consecutive days, which would be “a winter streak that PJM has never experienced.” Still, it expects to be able to meet the increased use, staff members said.

For now, the grid appears to have ample gas supplies because reduced demand from liquefied natural gas export terminals and increased imports from Canada were offsetting curtailed domestic production, PJM said.

PJM is also home to the U.S.’s biggest concentration of data centers in northern Virginia, creating a unique test of whether these power-hungry campuses can be called to help — and not break — the grid.

PJM is working with the U.S. Energy Department and technology companies tap back-up diesel generators at data centers in extreme conditions “in lieu of” rotating blackouts, staff said on the call. The grid is signing non-disclosure agreements with data center operators to get access to sensitive information to allow this, and the capability should be in place later this week, staff said.