How to read the power grid dashboard
The U.S. grid is not one system. It is run by dozens of balancing authorities, each responsible for matching supply to demand in its own territory every second. The biggest are regional transmission organisations — ERCOT in Texas, PJM across the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley, MISO through the middle of the country, CAISO in California, NYISO, ISO New England and SPP — which also run the wholesale power markets.
Demand and the forecast
Demand is the electricity consumers in an area are drawing, measured here in gigawatts averaged over each hour. Every operator publishes a day-ahead forecast, and the gap between the two is worth watching: demand running well above forecast on a hot afternoon is how tight-grid alerts begin. Demand follows a daily rhythm — low overnight, a morning ramp, and a late-afternoon peak driven by air conditioning in summer and heating in winter.
The generation mix
Natural gas is the largest single source of U.S. power and the most flexible, ramping up and down through the day. Nuclear runs flat out around the clock. Solar produces a midday hump that has grown large enough to reshape the daily curve, and the evening hours when solar fades but demand is still high — the “duck curve” — are the hardest for operators to cover. Wind varies with weather and is often strongest at night.
Peak demand records
Grids are built to meet their highest demand, so peaks matter more than averages. New records usually come in the late afternoon of a heat wave, and growing loads from data centres and electrification are pushing records higher. The “% of record” column shows how close each grid is today.
Imports and exports
Neighbouring grids trade power constantly. Net exports is generation minus demand: positive means a grid is sending power out, negative that it is relying on imports. ERCOT has only limited links to the rest of the country, which is why it has to meet almost all of its own peak.
Frequently asked questions
Where does this power grid data come from?
From the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Hourly Electric Grid Monitor (Form EIA-930). Every balancing authority in the Lower 48 reports its hourly demand, a day-ahead demand forecast, its net generation by fuel and the power it exchanges with neighbours. This page reads that data each hour.
How current is the demand data?
Demand and generation totals typically arrive one to two hours after the hour ends. The split of generation by fuel type lags further, usually around half a day, so the fuel mix shown is the latest complete hour rather than this moment.
What is ERCOT?
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which runs the grid serving most of Texas. It is largely isolated from the rest of the U.S. grid, so it cannot lean on neighbours in a heat wave, which is why its peak-demand records attract so much attention.
What is a balancing authority?
The organisation responsible for keeping supply and demand in balance on part of the grid, second by second. Large ones such as PJM, MISO and CAISO are regional transmission organisations that also run wholesale power markets.
What was the record U.S. electricity demand?
The Lower 48's record hourly demand in the EIA data is shown on this page with its date. Records are computed from the full hourly history since 2019, with isolated one-hour reporting spikes excluded.