PJM, ERCOT and SPP set summer peak records; Hitachi plans pressboard plant

PJM, ERCOT and the Southwest Power Pool set hourly peak-load records in summer 2026, PJM's at 162.6 GW. Elsewhere on the continent the build-out goes a piece at a time: a battery outside Houston, a transformer-insulation plant in Ontario and an electric boiler in downtown Seattle.

PJM, ERCOT and SPP set summer peak-load records

PJM peaked at 162.6 GW on July 2, 2026, 1.3% above its pre-2026 peak of 160.6 GW on June 23, 2025, according to an Energy Information Administration analysis of Form EIA-930 data published October 15. PJM's own preliminary figures, presented to its Members Committee on July 27, put the instantaneous peak at 162,713 MW on July 2 and the unrestricted peak at 168,158 MW, which PJM labels an all-time peak. ERCOT reached 91.1 GW on July 22, 6.5% above its record of 85.5 GW from August 20, 2024, and the Southwest Power Pool hit 58.0 GW on July 27, 3.5% above its 56.0 GW peak of August 21, 2023. EIA says most of the peaks came during regional heat waves, amid the hottest summer on record nationally, which drove up cooling demand.

Four other operators came close by EIA's measure, within 2% (CAISO and ISO-NE), 3% (NYISO) and 4% (MISO) of their previous records. CAISO reached 50.0 GW on September 9 against a 51.1 GW record from 2022, ISO-NE 25.3 GW against 25.9 GW, and NYISO 31.1 GW against 31.9 GW in EIA's hourly data, though NYISO reports a 34.0 GW record from 2013, before EIA collected hourly data. MISO's 121.5 GW on June 30 is the highest in EIA's hourly monitor but below the 127.1 GW peak of July 20, 2011 that MISO reports. EIA cautions that the figures are as reported by each balancing authority and may differ from the operators' own data.

PJM's October emergency came nowhere near that record. Asking for the October 13–16 emergency order, PJM told the Energy Department it expected load at or around 111,500 MW (or higher) on October 13, about 51 GW below EIA's July figure by our arithmetic, with generation outages reaching around 61,591 MW in the fall maintenance season (as we reported). The squeeze came from the supply side.

Nightpeak doubles its Bocanova battery site in ERCOT

Nightpeak Energy's Bocanova 2, a 150 MW, two-hour battery in Brazoria County near Houston, reached commercial operation on September 17, taking the Bocanova site to 300 MW, the company said on October 13. The first 150 MW phase began commercial operation in August 2025. Two hours at 150 MW makes the new phase about 300 MWh by our arithmetic, so the site's headline 300 is power and the new phase's 300 is energy (the difference).

Bocanova 2 runs on Tesla Megapack 2 XL units under a long-term offtake agreement with an investment-grade counterparty the release does not name. MUFG Bank provided a tax equity bridge loan and a construction-to-term loan, and U.S. Bank provided traditional tax equity. Nightpeak pitches the plant as flexibility for an ERCOT grid where data centers and other large loads are driving demand growth; its portfolio of over 1 GW of operating and de-risked capacity also spans gas-fired generation. The contracted model contrasts with Equinor's 100 MW Citrus Flatts, which Equinor said on September 3, 2026 runs on a fully merchant basis in ERCOT.

Hitachi Energy plans Canada's first pressboard line

Hitachi Energy will invest C$479 million (more than US$330 million) in a transformer insulation factory in London, Ontario, it said on October 16. The 21,000-square-meter plant, expected to be completed by 2028, will make electrical insulation pressboard and laminates and is expected to create over 100 permanent skilled jobs. Hitachi says it will house Canada's first pressboard manufacturing line and the company's first in the Americas, and that transformer makers still face global supply constraints, including limited availability of the specialized insulation materials transformers require.

Governments are putting in up to C$50 million, about a tenth of the cost by our arithmetic. Ottawa's release puts federal support at C$30 million, C$20 million from the Strategic Response Fund and C$10 million from the Investments in Forest Industry Transformation program, toward a project it values at C$478.8 million, and Ontario is providing up to C$20 million through the Invest Ontario Fund. The forestry money explains itself: Ottawa says the plant will turn wood fibre into up to 20,000 tonnes a year of pressboard and laminated insulation for high-voltage transformers, and that it will supply Hitachi's transformer operations in Varennes, Quebec, and other transformer and insulation makers.

Ontario's release puts the plant in London's Huron Industrial Park, and its quick facts say it "will be the first transformer pressboard factory in the world with four formers (machines that shape wet pulp into sheets) that will be able to produce up to 20,000 tonnes of material annually."

CenTrio plans a 25 MW electric boiler for Seattle steam

CenTrio is advancing engineering design for a 25 MW electric boiler at its Western Avenue plant, the first phase of that plant's decarbonization plan, the district energy company said on October 13. The boiler would make about 85,000 pounds of steam per hour for a system that serves 140 buildings in the greater Seattle area, including three major hospitals. CenTrio is working with Seattle City Light to secure the power. Construction is planned to begin in 2027, after engineering, permitting, utility coordination and final approvals, and the boiler is expected to be operational about two years after construction begins.

The project has $4 million in grants from Washington's Climate Commitment Act cap-and-invest program, administered by the state Department of Commerce, per the release. CenTrio says emissions could fall by more than 60%, or about 42,000 tons a year, at maximum utilization, and that the boiler "will provide operational flexibility to balance emissions reductions with customer affordability." Put together, those two statements suggest the boiler will not always run flat out.