According to a report released by PJM Interconnection on July 18, 2023, during the peak of Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022, 24% of the grid operator’s generating capacity was unexpectedly offline.[1] Of the generating capacity that was offline, gas-fired power plants made up about 70% of unplanned outages. The report states that generators that failed to meet their capacity obligations during Winter Storm Elliott face about $1.8 billion in non-performance charges, about 45% of the nearly $4 billion in capacity revenue for this capacity year.

The non-performance charges represent 83% of the nearly $2.2 billion in capacity payments earned by the resources facing penalties. Resources that provide more power than their obligations receive bonus payments funded by the penalties. The grid operator stated that, on average, 80% of bonus megawatts were produced by generation, 10% came from net imports from outside its footprint, energy efficiency resources produced 5%, and demand response and price responsive demand resources produced 5%. Nuclear power plants received 34.5% of the bonus pool for generators, followed by gas at 29.2%, coal at 17.3%, and wind at 13.7%. In its report, PJM offered 30 recommendations in response to operations during Winter Storm Elliott. Many of these recommendations are being addressed in its Critical Issue Fast Path – Resource Adequacy process or through other forums.

[1] https://pjm.com/-/media/library/reports-notices/special-reports/2023/20230717-winter-storm-elliott-event-analysis-and-recommendation-report.ashx