Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy
ing system conditions . At the time , we were in the “ shoulder season ” when the warmer weather brings lighter demand for power . This is the time of year when companies schedule routine , planned outages of plants , transmission lines and facilities for required maintenance . Those outages restrict , temporarily , grid capacity . In some instances , about one in four , companies selected to shorten the duration of this maintenance or defer activities until the fall shoulder season .
Coordinating these outages and facilitating this communication has been a key function at PJM through the pandemic . It was important for PJM to have this information in order to avoid outages cascading from week to week and running into peak summer season , which could possibly compromise reliable operations . PJM doesn ’ t allow planned outages for the peak summer months . We have found that transmission impacts as a result of COVID-19 have been minimal .
Generation impacts as a result of COVID-19 also have been minimal . Generation owners showed flexibility early in dealing with maintenance outages . Work that was deferred to later in the spring was completed , and other work was pushed to the fall or 2021 . Initially , about 20 – 30 percent of planned outages were deferred , and 5 percent canceled . Some generators reported some crew shortages due to travel restrictions and also impacts to parts supplies .
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