The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued an order to tackle an energy emergency situation across 17 U.S. states triggered by hot weather conditions.
The July 26 emergency order was issued by Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to Southwest Power Pool Inc. (SPP), the regional grid operator for the 17 states.
According to the order, SPP is expecting hot weather conditions through Aug. 3. The operator requested the department to allow specific power generation units to run beyond their operating limits in order to ensure grid reliability. It also sought authority to unlock and deploy backup generation resources at data centers and other industrial and commercial customer sites to counter any risk to the bulk power system….