By Rick Lemonds, president & CEO
For years, power outages have almost always been caused by something nearby, like a fallen tree, a traffic accident, a severe storm, or even an animal interfering with our equipment. In these cases, we deploy our local line workers to find the problem and restore your power as quickly as possible.
We are now entering a different era for grid reliability. The way electricity is produced and managed across our country is changing, alongside incredible new demand from data centers and other sources. And these factors bring a new set of challenges. As your cooperative, we believe it’s important to be open with you about these changes and what they mean for our shared goal of keeping the lights on.
The challenge of a changing grid
Our nation is shifting away from traditional power sources like coal, which provide a constant, predictable supply of energy known as baseload generation. The new generation sources being added to our grid are primarily intermittent resources, such as solar and wind, which depend on the sun shining or the wind blowing.
This transition presents a challenge for our regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection. PJM acts as the coordinating body for the movement of electricity across 13 states and the District of Columbia. Its critical job is to ensure the supply of electricity perfectly matches the demand at every moment. The grid operator must also maintain enough reserve power to handle sudden spikes in demand, like those we see during extreme heat or cold. PJM faces a difficult balancing act. The premature closure of dispatchable coal power plants, combined with the rise of intermittent renewables, puts the grid in a tough position.
Preventing a crisis
Our electric grid is an incredibly complex machine. It is built to be resilient, but it has limits. Too much or too little power flowing through the system can threaten its stability and cause extensive damage to the equipment that delivers electricity to your home or business. Repairing this kind of damage could lead to widespread outages lasting days, weeks, or even months.
To prevent such a catastrophic failure, PJM and other grid operators across the country have a last-resort safety measure. When demand for electricity is projected to exceed the available supply, they must take steps to reduce consumption across the region. PJM could require local power companies like South Central Power to reduce electricity use through controlled, temporary power outages, while PJM and our power transmission providers work to stabilize the grid and restore the flow of power as quickly and safely as possible. When PJM determines there is not enough generation to meet demand, it’s not a local equipment failure or an outage that anyone at South Central Power can fix.
Our commitment to you
So, what can we do? Our first and most important commitment is to keep you informed. We will use every communication tool available to us to share updates from PJM and let you know when conservation is needed. In the past, when we have asked for your help to conserve electricity, your response has made a real difference in stabilizing the grid and preventing wider issues.
We will also continue to prepare our systems to respond to PJM emergency orders. While we must comply with these directives to protect the larger grid, we will work to ensure any required outages are managed to minimize the impact on you.
Beyond preparation, we have a responsibility to advocate for sensible energy policy. As we engage with policymakers, our message is clear: Let’s not rush the energy transition at the expense of the grid’s reliability. We all depend on electricity for our safety, comfort, and economic well-being. By working together and advocating for a balanced approach, we can navigate this new energy landscape.
From the December 2025 issue of Ohio Cooperative Living.