Biggest US Grid Saw 23% of Power Plants Fail in Recent Storm (2)

The largest US grid operator saw almost one-fourth of power plants serving 65 million people shut down during the Christmas weekend storm, pushing the region to the brink of blackouts.

In the first autopsy of the winter freeze that strained PJM Interconnection LLC last month, the grid operator saw 23% of its power-generation fleet shut down on the morning of Dec. 24, according to a presentation released Wednesday. PJM manages the electrical network that stretches from New Jersey to Illinois.

Natural gas-fired plants accounted for 70% of the almost 46 gigawatts of outages and few of the power generators ...