DOE Extends Eddystone Emergency Order Through November
ENMG Analysis
The U.S. Department of Energy has ordered two generating units at Constellation Energy’s Eddystone Generating Station in Pennsylvania to remain available through November 20, extending federal intervention at a plant originally scheduled to retire more than a year ago.
The August 21 order does not require Eddystone Units 3 and 4 to operate continuously. Instead, it directs PJM Interconnection, in coordination with Constellation, to keep the units ready for dispatch when needed and to use them economically to support reliability while limiting costs to consumers.
DOE issued the action under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act. The order took effect August 23 and remains in force through November 20, 2026.
The decision reflects a widening policy debate across the PJM region. Electricity demand is growing faster, particularly from data centers and other large industrial customers, while some dispatchable generators are retiring and new generation and transmission projects face lengthy development timelines.
What the DOE Eddystone Emergency Order Requires
DOE Order No. 202-26-40 applies to Units 3 and 4 at the Eddystone Generating Station in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Each unit has a generating capacity of 380 megawatts, for a combined total of approximately 760 MW.
According to the DOE emergency order, the department determined that an emergency exists in the PJM region because of increased demand, a shortage of electric energy, and a shortage of generation or transmission facilities.
The order directs PJM and Constellation to take all necessary measures to ensure the units remain available. PJM must also use economic dispatch, meaning the units should be called upon based on system needs and in a way intended to minimize costs to ratepayers.
Constellation must comply with PJM’s instructions regarding the units’ availability and dispatch. The company must also file any necessary tariff revisions or waivers with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to implement the order and seek recovery of eligible costs.
The order includes several limitations:
- The units may operate only at times and within parameters determined by PJM.
- PJM must provide DOE with daily notifications regarding compliance.
- Operations remain subject to environmental monitoring, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements to the maximum extent feasible.
- Constellation remains responsible for applicable emissions fees, offsets, allowances, and other environmental obligations.
- The units will not be treated as capacity resources in PJM’s markets during the emergency-order period.
That last provision is significant. The order preserves operating availability, but it does not simply add the 760 MW to PJM’s forward capacity supply in the same manner as a conventional market resource.
Eddystone’s Role in the PJM System
Eddystone Units 3 and 4 are subcritical steam boiler-turbine generators capable of operating on either natural gas or oil. Their dual-fuel capability gives PJM an additional operating option when fuel availability, prices, weather, or transmission conditions change.
Constellation originally planned to retire both units on May 31, 2025. DOE has since issued a series of Section 202(c) orders requiring the units to remain available. The August action extends that sequence through November 20.
| Eddystone Units 3 and 4 | Key figure |
|---|---|
| Unit capacity | 380 MW each |
| Combined capacity | Approximately 760 MW |
| Fuel capability | Natural gas and oil |
| Original retirement date | May 31, 2025 |
| Current order begins | August 23, 2026 |
| Current order expires | November 20, 2026 |
| Order authority | Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act |
A 760 MW resource is small relative to PJM’s total system, but its location and operating characteristics can matter during constrained periods. Generation near a load pocket or transmission bottleneck may have greater reliability value than the same amount of capacity located elsewhere.
The units also represent a type of resource that can produce power regardless of whether wind or solar output is available. That does not make them cost-effective in every operating hour. It does mean they can provide dispatchable capacity when the system is short on supply or facing an unexpected contingency.
Why DOE Is Intervening at Eddystone
The immediate policy concern is the balance between rising electricity demand and the pace at which replacement resources are entering service.
PJM’s 2026 Long-Term Load Forecast projects summer peak demand to reach approximately 222,000 MW by 2036 and more than 253,000 MW by 2046. PJM estimates average summer peak growth of about 3.6% annually over the next decade.
The regional transmission organization has identified data centers and artificial intelligence workloads, electrification, and industrial expansion as important sources of demand growth. At the same time, generators are retiring, interconnection projects are taking years to complete, and transmission upgrades face permitting and construction constraints.
DOE’s August order cites a PJM system peak of 162.7 GW on July 2, 2026, compared with a previously forecast summer peak of approximately 156.4 GW. The gap illustrates how weather and demand conditions can produce operating requirements that exceed planning assumptions.
The order is also part of a broader sequence of federal grid interventions. DOE issued several PJM emergency orders during late June and July, including an order covering July 14 through July 21. It also issued an emergency order for the Southwest Power Pool on July 20.
The Eddystone action continues a separate series of orders that have kept Units 3 and 4 available since their planned May 2025 retirement date.
Other DOE actions this year have addressed generation in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator region, Maryland, Colorado, and other areas. Taken together, the actions show how federal authorities are using Section 202(c) to preserve or activate resources when grid operators identify short-term reliability concerns.
Data Centers Are Changing the Policy Calculation
Data center development has changed the way utilities, regulators, and regional grid operators evaluate future demand.
Traditional load growth tends to develop gradually across residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Large data centers can add hundreds of megawatts in a concentrated location, sometimes with timelines that move faster than generation and transmission construction.
PJM’s forecast process has been revised to distinguish between more certain large-load commitments and speculative or less-developed projects. Even with improved vetting, the growth outlook remains materially higher than historical trends.
The implications extend beyond power plants. New data centers require:
- Transmission and distribution upgrades
- Substations and large transformers
- Natural gas, nuclear, renewable, or other firm power resources
- Backup generation and battery storage
- Skilled workers to build and maintain electrical infrastructure
ENMG has examined this wider infrastructure challenge in its analysis of the workforce requirements created by AI-driven electricity demand. The policy issue is not only whether demand will materialize. It is whether the entire supply chain can deliver the generation, grid equipment, permitting, and labor needed to serve it.
Reliability Benefits and Market Questions
From a reliability perspective, the order provides PJM with an additional dispatchable resource during the late summer and fall. Retaining an existing facility may also be faster than developing a new plant, expanding a transmission corridor, or completing a large-scale storage project.
The order could benefit:
- PJM, by providing another resource during tight operating conditions
- Constellation, through potential cost recovery authorized under federal law
- Customers who value additional protection against emergency curtailments
- Local workers and communities connected to the generating station
- Natural gas and oil suppliers serving the dual-fuel units
However, the action also raises market and regulatory questions.
First, repeated emergency extensions can complicate normal retirement and investment decisions. A generator that is uneconomic under ordinary market conditions may remain available because of federal direction. That may preserve reliability in the short term, but it can make it more difficult for market participants to determine which resources are commercially viable without emergency support.
Second, the order’s treatment of Eddystone as unavailable for capacity-market purposes highlights the difference between operating availability and forward resource adequacy. A unit can be valuable during a specific emergency without fully resolving PJM’s longer-term capacity needs.
Third, rate recovery and environmental compliance will require continued scrutiny. The order directs Constellation to pursue tariff changes or waivers at FERC, while also requiring continued compliance with environmental obligations. The ultimate cost allocation will depend on subsequent regulatory filings and decisions.
The Broader Energy System
The Eddystone decision does not represent a choice between one technology and another. PJM’s reliability challenge involves the interaction of natural gas, oil, nuclear power, coal, wind, solar, battery storage, transmission, and demand response.
Natural gas and dual-fuel units can provide dispatchable power, but fuel supply and pipeline constraints remain relevant during extreme weather. Nuclear plants offer high-capacity-factor generation, although new projects require long development periods. Wind and solar resources can reduce fuel consumption and emissions, but their output varies with weather and time of day. Batteries can respond quickly, but their duration and charging requirements limit how they serve prolonged shortages.
Transmission is equally important. A region may have sufficient generation on paper but still face reliability problems if power cannot move through constrained corridors to where it is needed.
The policy challenge is therefore larger than keeping one 760 MW facility available. PJM and its regulators must determine how much new capacity is needed, how quickly it can be built, who should pay for upgrades, and how large customers should be integrated into the market without shifting unreasonable costs to other consumers.
What to Watch Next
Several developments will help determine the order’s market impact.
PJM’s compliance report: The order required PJM to provide DOE by September 8 with information about the steps taken and planned to keep Eddystone available, including environmental impacts and compliance measures. Any public release of that information could provide more detail about how the order is being implemented.
FERC filings: Constellation may seek tariff revisions, waivers, or cost recovery through FERC. Those proceedings could clarify how emergency-directed generation is compensated.
PJM’s fall operating conditions: The Eddystone units are available through November 20, covering the late-summer and early-fall period and part of the transition toward winter reliability concerns.
Capacity-market reforms: The order adds pressure to ongoing debates about PJM’s capacity market, reserve margins, retirement rules, large-load forecasting, and the treatment of co-located generation.
Data center commitments: Investors and regulators will continue watching whether planned data center projects become firm load commitments or remain more speculative proposals.
DOE’s action provides PJM with a temporary reliability tool. It does not resolve the region’s underlying supply-and-demand imbalance, nor does it replace the need for new generation, transmission, storage, and demand-management resources.
The central policy question is whether emergency orders remain a limited bridge while permanent resources are developed or become a recurring mechanism for managing structural changes in the electricity market. The answer will affect reliability, ratepayer costs, generator investment, and the pace of industrial growth across the Mid-Atlantic.
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