A key power plant failed on emergency morning. PJM still hasn't said which one.

RICHMOND, Va. - On the morning the federal government declared a grid emergency for Virginia, a power plant that the grid was counting on simply quit. More than a month later, ratepayers still haven't been told which one.

"This morning, a critical generation facility that supports the affected Zones identified in PJM's September 16 application unexpectedly went offline," PJM Interconnection Chief Operating Officer Frederick "Stu" Bresler wrote to Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Sept. 17. "It is unclear whether it will return to service by today's evening peak, exacerbating the already tight system conditions."

The "affected Zones" were BGE, Pepco and Dominion, which cover central Maryland, the D.C. area and most of Virginia.

What's been disclosed: nothing

The letter gives no name, location, owner, fuel type or size. It gives no cause and no return date. A review of PJM's posted documents for the event, DOE's docket for Order No. 202-26-45 and news coverage available online did not identify the plant.

PJM hasn't named it.

Why it matters

PJM was already warning that the system was on the edge. It forecast demand "at or around 133,285 MW (or higher)" and a shortfall of "approximately 700 MW below its reserve margin." It said about 33,191 megawatts of generation was offline, much of it for scheduled fall maintenance, and that a 500-kilovolt line between Conastone and Peach Bottom was limiting how much power could flow south into the stressed zones.

Under those conditions, losing one large plant inside the bottleneck can be the difference between a tight evening and rolling blackouts. PJM's own application warned that "unforeseen contingencies - like generation or line losses" could have "significant" impacts. The next morning, one arrived.

Wright signed the emergency order that day. PJM called emergency demand response in the three zones, paying customers to cut usage, from mid-afternoon to 10 p.m. Under the order's waivers, Dominion's Mount Storm coal plant in West Virginia ran one unit 12 hours and six backup diesel units in Ashburn ran 8 to 10 hours, PJM's compliance report shows.

The transparency problem

Virginians pay for this grid. The order says rate recovery for emergency costs "is available" through federal filings, so those costs can reach their bills. Yet the public can't learn which plant's failure helped push the region into a federal emergency.

That matters for policy. If the plant was a gas unit, it raises questions about fuel and maintenance. If it was a nuclear or coal unit, it bears on how much baseload Virginia keeps. If it was a newer resource, it bears on what's replacing retiring plants. Without a name, legislators debating Virginia's energy future are working without a key fact.

PJM's public postings for the event include no unit-level outage data. PJM's independent market monitor, Monitoring Analytics, publishes reports on market events. Any FERC filings tied to the order's cost-recovery clause could also show which units were involved.

What the order allowed

The order Wright signed that day let PJM run listed power plants past their permit limits on sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, wastewater and fuel use, and order large power users onto backup generators "as a last resort" before rolling blackouts. Its list of covered units included 11 gas-and-oil turbines in Louisa, Fauquier and Hanover counties. None of them appear on PJM's Sept. 17 report of units that relied on the waiver.

Who could ask

The State Corporation Commission regulates Dominion Energy Virginia, and its three commissioners, Chair Kelsey A. Bagot, Jehmal T. Hudson and Samuel T. Towell, were copied on Wright's order. No public SCC statement on the outage was found. Virginia's members of Congress and the General Assembly's energy committees could also press PJM for an answer.

Until someone does, the most important fact about Sept. 17 remains a blank.

Documents

The order, PJM's application, its supplemental letter and Exhibit A are posted on the Department of Energy's 202(c) page for Order No. 202-26-45 at energy.gov. PJM's daily compliance report for Sept. 17 is posted at pjm.com.