Public power utilities on Jan. 26 reported that they are making progress in restoring power to customers who experienced outages due to Winter Storm Fern.
Tennessee’s Nashville Electric Service reported that utility teams worked overnight to make repairs and restore power to customers after freezing rain and ice impacted the NES service territory and have since restored power to 60,000 customers.
NES and contracted crews will continue operations in rotations, and they will remain on extended 14–16 hour shifts to ensure we can continue responding to outages quickly.
NES lineworkers restore power by tackling areas affecting the largest number of customers first, it noted.
The Tennessee Valley Authority on Jan. 26 said its crews were on the ground and in the air assessing storm damage and making repairs across the region. When areas can’t be reached by land, helicopters and drones are supporting restoration efforts alongside crews working closely with local power companies.
“While the TVA power system remains stable and secure and our plants are performing well to meet rising energy demand during the extreme cold, storm damage is impacting service for customers in parts of Middle and West Tennessee and Mississippi. At this time, TVA has damage that is impacting 12 of our local power companies.”
TVA and local power company crews “are working around the clock to restore service as safely and quickly as possible despite challenging conditions. All available resources remain deployed until power is restored.”
Later in the day, TVA said it had restored transmission lines serving local power companies in Middle and West Tennessee. "Work to restore local power systems is ongoing, and we are assisting where we can."
TVA crews have made progress on restoring high voltage lines that deliver electricity to local power companies in North Mississippi, with roughly half of the affected delivery points repaired, it said.
"We appreciate the patience of those still impacted and the continued partnership with local power companies as restoration work continues," TVA said.
In Texas, Austin Energy on Jan. 26 said crews remained in the field responding to outages following the weekend’s winter storm. Frigid temperatures, icy roads and limited access are impacting restoration in some areas, it said.
"The Austin Energy team has been doing an amazing job responding to Winter Storm Fern," Austin Energy General Manager Stuart Reilly said in a post on LinkedIn on Jan. 26. "From an electric system perspective, we were fortunate to get more sleet than freezing rain. Still, the coordination and response citywide has been remarkable. If more people knew how much our City employees do, they would be amazed."
Looking at overall power outage numbers in the U.S., poweroutage.us noted that as of Monday evening, there were 606,000 customers without power.
In Louisiana, public power utility Lafayette Utilities System sent crews to assist with power restoration efforts in Jonesville, La.
In a Jan. 26 update on X, LUS said its crews finished up "in the restoration of Jonesville, LA and are headed to Yazoo City, MS to continue." Yazoo City is a public power community.
DOE Issues Emergency Order Aimed at Mitigating Blackouts in the Carolinas
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Jan. 26 issued an emergency order to mitigate blackouts in North and South Carolina following Winter Storm Fern.
Issued pursuant to Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, the order authorizes Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC and Duke Energy Progress to run specified resources located within the Duke Region, regardless of limits established by environmental permits or state law.
The order will help Duke respond to extreme temperatures and storm damage across the Carolinas and reduce costs for Americans due to the winter storm, DOE said.
The order is in effect from January 27—January 30, 2026.
PJM Updates
Meanwhile, the PJM Interconnection on Jan. 26 said it had issued additional precautionary alerts and continues to operate through the wide arctic system that is bringing extreme cold temperatures through this week to the region PJM serves, spanning 13 states and the District of Columbia.
Peak demand has the potential to exceed 130,000 MW for seven straight days, a winter streak that PJM has never experienced.
Depending on temperatures, PJM could set a new all-time winter peak load on Tuesday, Jan. 27. The extreme cold is currently expected to continue through Sunday, Feb. 1, so PJM is taking additional precautions with its generation and transmission owners to prepare.
PJM issued a Maximum Generation Alert and Load Management Alert for Jan. 27 across its footprint to ensure the reliable delivery of electricity. This alert does not require any action from customers.
The alert is targeted at transmission/generation owners, who then determine if any maintenance or testing on equipment can be deferred or canceled. By deferring maintenance, the units stay online and continue to produce energy that is needed.
Additionally, this alert provides notice to neighboring systems that electricity exports from PJM may be curtailed on Jan. 27. The alert serves as a procedural step that allows those neighboring regions affected to plan accordingly.
PJM issues this alert at the same time as a Load Management Alert, which gives advance notification that load management action may be declared, including non-Emergency and Emergency Demand Response.
Low Voltage Alert
PJM has also issued a Low Voltage Alert across its footprint through Jan. 31. A Low Voltage Alert is an additional precautionary alert that does not require any action from customers.
The alert is issued to heighten awareness, increase planning, analysis and preparation efforts when heavy loads and low voltages are possible in upcoming operating periods, allowing Transmission Owners ample time to take actions to increase voltages resulting in increased transfer capability across the RTO.
U.S. Department of Energy Expedited Process for Running Backup Generation
On Monday (Jan. 26), in response to a DOE letter of Jan. 22, 2026, PJM requested an order under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act authorizing PJM in collaboration with its Transmission Owners to direct the deployment of customer-owned backup generation facilities if needed to avoid or mitigate any load shed event during the current extreme winter weather.
PJM is working with the DOE to identify data center customers who have volunteered to go onto backup generation if needed in an emergency.
The DOE’s expedited process for grid operators to obtain emergency orders for use of backup generators, issued pursuant to this letter, will be helpful as a last resort to avoid impacts to residential customers if the PJM generation fleet or transmission system were to experience major outages, PJM said.
PJM said it continues to take precautions to aggressively support its generation fleet. On Sunday morning, Jan. 25, the U.S. Department of Energy issued an order pursuant to section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, in response to PJM’s Jan. 24 application for relief.
The order allows PJM to run all electric generating units located within the PJM region to operate up to their maximum generation output levels, notwithstanding air quality or other permit limitations or fuel shortages while the emergency lasts. This order is effective through Jan. 31.
PJM currently has sufficient resources to serve load but may implement the order as appropriate given the record electricity demand expected this week, it said.
Pre-Emergency Demand Response Called in BGE, DOM, PEPCO
Also as a precautionary measure, PJM activated Demand Response customers in parts of the Mid-Atlantic on Sunday, Jan. 25.
PJM called on Pre-Emergency Demand Response for BGE, Dominion and Pepco areas for Sunday afternoon/evening to address localized transmission constraints and to preserve the run-time of generators that will be needed for colder weather and higher electricity demand later in the week.
Demand response or load management customers are paid to reduce their electricity consumption to ease load during critical periods.
Cold Weather Alert and Conservative Operations Continue Through Feb. 1
A Cold Weather Alert is currently in effect for the entire region PJM serves has been extended through Feb. 1.
A Cold Weather Alert is a routine procedure PJM issues in advance of significantly cold weather conditions expected for all or parts of the region PJM serves.
When issued, PJM communicates with generation owners to tell them to be prepared to call in additional staff to get all units running for when electricity use begins to increase. Generation owners must take extra care to maintain equipment so that it does not freeze in the cold and are reminded to provide updated information to PJM on limitations to their units, including time required to start and the max and min times that their units can run once started.
A Cold Weather Alert can also be used to defer or reschedule planned generation maintenance outages and/or transmission outages and/or recall transmission/generator outages, if necessary.
PJM has also issued a Conservative Operations declaration for Jan. 24 through Feb. 1 for advance unit commitments.
There are any number of events that may require PJM to operate more conservatively. When PJM declares Conservative Operations, system operators have more flexibility to make decisions to maintain reliability.
The declaration of Conservative Operations may include additional actions, including recalling/cancelling non-critical maintenance outages, reductions in transfers into, across or through the PJM RTO, increased reserves, and/or additional requests placed upon PJM member transmission owners and generation owners.
Maintenance Outage Recall
Additionally, PJM issued a generator maintenance outage recall on Jan. 21, requesting for all maintenance outages to be returned to service by Jan. 24 in order to increase the amount of generation available to meet customer demand. The generator maintenance outage recall is expected to remain in place until further notice.
Preliminary and Forecast Peaks
As of Jan. 26, PJM is expecting to serve the following approximate peak loads through Sunday, Feb. 1:
Date Forecast Peak Load
Monday, Jan. 26 133,400 MW
Tuesday, Jan. 27 147,200 MW
Wednesday, Jan. 28 145,500 MW
Thursday, Jan. 29 146,100 MW
Friday, Jan. 30 146,900 MW
Saturday, Jan. 31 133,000 MW
Sunday, Feb. 1 126,200 MW
These numbers are official as of 5 p.m., Jan. 26. They are subject to change and will be updated periodically.
