DOE extends emergency order that can force PJM data centers onto backup generators

The U.S. Department of Energy has extended an emergency order directing grid operator PJM Interconnection to be ready to switch large data centers and other big power users onto on-site backup generators during severe grid strain. The switch is a last resort.

The order runs through 11:59 p.m. ET on July 7, 2026, extended from an original July 3 expiry after PJM applied for more time, according to the department’s Section 202© order docket. Section 202© of the Federal Power Act lets the energy secretary compel emergency electricity measures. Facilities with 50 megawatts or more of load and on-site backup generation could be told to shift to diesel or other backup power within 15 minutes during an Energy Emergency Alert.

Why it matters: this is the third time in 2026 the department has invoked Section 202© against PJM, which serves 67 million people across 13 states and Washington, D.C. The repeated orders track the strain that AI data-center demand and summer heat are placing on the mid-Atlantic grid.

The timing was acute. PJM forecast a peak of 166,147 megawatts on July 2, which would have topped its 2006 record of 165,563 megawatts; actual demand reached roughly 163 gigawatts, just short of the record. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said maintaining “affordable, reliable, and secure power in the PJM service territory is non-negotiable.”

Hospitals, 911 centers, water-treatment plants, air-traffic-control facilities and defense installations are exempt from the backup-generation directive. The department cited an estimated 35 gigawatts of unused backup generation nationwide and put the cost of U.S. power outages at $44 billion a year.

The caveat: forcing diesel generators online, even briefly, sits awkwardly beside clean-air rules, and the directive is a last-resort switch, not a routine one. It has not yet been triggered in a way that curtailed a data center. Whether a fourth invocation follows this summer will show if the emergency tool is becoming a standing crutch for a grid struggling to keep pace with AI load.