PJM is entering a period of tightening reliability margins as electricity demand accelerates well beyond historical trends, while new supply additions lag behind.
Load growth driven by data centers, advanced manufacturing, and electrification is putting increasing pressure on the grid, raising both affordability concerns and the risk that PJM may be unable to fully support new investment, as associated economic and strategic benefits, without additional generation and infrastructure. While outside the scope of this study, other analyses indicate that these economic benefits are on the order of billions of dollars for every gigawatt of load growth that cannot be reliable and affordably connected to the grid.
Against this backdrop, offshore wind can make a meaningful contribution. Our analysis finds that offshore wind adds accredited capacity, reduces outage risk, and is especially valuable during hard-to-solve winter periods when PJM is increasingly stressed. Further, while offshore wind’s benefits are highest in Virginia, it has positive ripple effects for inland states. But offshore wind is not a standalone solution: fully addressing PJM’s emerging reliability gap will require a broader portfolio that also includes natural gas, storage, transmission, and demand-side flexibility.
This report evaluates what offshore wind can and cannot deliver in that broader context. It shows that offshore wind can materially reduce reliability risk and support continued economic growth, while also highlighting the need for broad infrastructure investment.
Read more about the impact of offshore wind in meeting coastal and inland load growth in PJM here.
