The NYISO Operating Committee discussed the challenges it faced while successfully navigating through several events in January, including a major winter storm.

The average cost for electricity in NYISO was $201.89/MWh in January, up nearly 53% from January 2025 and possibly the highest ever for the month, the ISO reported.

While PJM experienced some of its highest peak loads ever during the late January winter storm, it overestimated load, with relatively high load forecasting errors, RTO officials told the Operating Committee.

SPP says ample wind generation during the January winter storm enabled it to export as much as 3,500 MW to its neighbors in the Eastern Interconnection.

New York generators had to rely on oil as gas was scarce throughout the Eastern Interconnection during the Jan. 25-27 winter storm, NYISO said in a preliminary analysis.

ERCOT says it leaned on Texas’ 15 mobile generating units and an RMR unit during the state’s first major cold-weather event since 2021’s disastrous Winter Storm Uri.

The North American grid made it through the winter storm of Jan. 24-26 — dubbed “Fern” by The Weather Channel — relatively unscathed, but the cold weather gripping much of the U.S. and Canada continues, and cold snaps in the future will still stress the interconnected power and natural gas systems.

The winter storm that moved through Texas and much of the Eastern Interconnection cut power to hundreds of thousands of people and stressed the bulk power system, but did not create major disruptions like other storms earlier this decade.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the department is ready to use its authority under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to dispatch backup generation from large customers if needed ahead of a major winter storm.