Market status — September 28, 2026
Emergency
Elevated
Watch
Normal
PJM — quiet conditions, 5CP season entering its final days
- 5CP Capacity Tags: PJM’s summer coincident-peak window (June through September) closes September 30, so this week is the last chance for load to avoid an additional 5CP hour. No peak-hour alert is in effect today, but capacity planners should keep watching daily load forecasts through the close of the month via PJM’s load and load forecast data viewer.
- Real-Time LMP: No congestion or price-spike events were reported in Western Hub, NI Hub, or AEP-Dayton in the past day; real-time and day-ahead LMPs can be tracked directly on PJM’s Data Viewer.
- Demand Response: No DR dispatch or emergency activations in the last 24 hours. PJM’s most recent Maximum Generation Alert and emergency DR activation, tied to a DOE emergency order during a mid-month heat and outage event, was called on September 17 and has since cleared.
NYISO — normal operations following a hot summer
- ICAP Tag Tracking: No new UCAP tag updates or auction results in the last 24 hours. NYISO’s ICAP market page shows no schedule changes to the current capability period.
- CBEP Program Alerts: No Customer Benefit Emergency Participation activations reported; system notices and alerts show no active emergency operating procedures today.
- Day-Ahead Pricing: No notable zone-level spread was flagged for NYC, Long Island, or Capital in current reporting. In a summer wrap-up published this week, NYISO noted the system exceeded 27,000 MW of peak load on 10 separate days this summer, context worth keeping in mind heading into winter capability planning (RTO Insider).
ERCOT — 4CP window closing, large-load freeze still the story
- 4CP Season Tracking: ERCOT’s June–September 4CP window closes in two days. No 15-minute interval has been confirmed as a coincident peak in the past day; large transmission-level customers should keep monitoring ERCOT’s 4CP data aggregation page through Wednesday.
- ORDC Pricing: No high ORDC adders, reserve shortfalls, or approach to VOLL reported in the last 24 hours; operating reserves remain in normal range on the grid conditions dashboard.
- Grid Condition Alerts: No active Weather Watch, Watch, Warning, Emergency, or Conservation Alert. The bigger ongoing story remains regulatory: Texas’s pause on new large-load interconnections continues, with Governor Abbott’s halt on Batch Zero approvals still in effect while ERCOT works through an audit of a roughly 474 GW interconnection queue (Utility Dive).
ISO-NE — no capacity or load alerts today
- FCM Tag Events: No new qualification events, de-list bids, or show-cause notices posted in the last 24 hours on the Forward Capacity Market page.
- Capacity Market Integration: No new FCA results or zone changes this period. Storage developers continue to navigate evolving accreditation and interconnection rules as the market transitions (RTO Insider).
- Load Forecasting: ISO-NE’s three-day system demand forecast shows no elevated peak conditions expected this week; seasonal demand is tracking normally for late September.
MISO — quiet grid, queue reform in focus
- Zonal Pricing: No notable LMP spread or transmission constraint flagged across Zones 4, 5, 6, or 7 in the last 24 hours.
- Planning Resource Auction: The most recent Planning Resource Auction results showed sufficient capacity for the coming planning year system-wide, with no new shortfall concerns raised for Zone 4 (Illinois) this period (MISO resource adequacy).
- Real-Time Settlements: Nothing unusual reported in RT settlement intervals today. Separately, MISO this week asked FERC for a cutback to interconnection queue restudies and a one-time exit ramp for 2022-cycle projects, a process change worth tracking for anyone with resources in that queue (RTO Insider).
CAISO — no flex alerts, no curtailment events reported
- Flex Alerts: No Stage 1, 2, or 3 Flex Alerts issued or expected; no demand response call-outs reported in the last 24 hours.
- Renewable Curtailment: No unusual solar or wind curtailment volumes reported today; overgeneration is not flagged as a current issue.
- NQC Integration: No new Net Qualifying Capacity updates or resource adequacy deficiency notices posted in the last 24 hours on CAISO’s resource adequacy page.
Cross-Market Watch
- Large-load interconnection scrutiny is spreading: Beyond Texas, utilities and states including Virginia, Montana, and Florida are tightening rules on data center interconnection requests and speculative queue positions, with more than $170 billion in proposed AI data center capacity reportedly blocked, withdrawn, or stalled since January 2024 (Utility Dive).
- Interconnection queue reform debate continuing at PJM and MISO: Both RTOs are facing fresh scrutiny over queue backlogs and study timelines this week, with commentary calling for structural reform at PJM (RTO Insider) alongside MISO’s FERC filing noted above.
- No NERC emergency alert or FERC order affecting multiple ISOs was issued in the last 24 hours.
HOW INTELLASTAR ENERGY ANALYST CAN HELP
Today’s conditions create specific opportunities — and risks — for your organization.
The 4CP window closes in two days, and the large-load interconnection freeze is reshaping who gets to connect next.
Intellastar Energy Analyst tracks interval load against historical 4CP thresholds in real time, so you know your coincident-peak exposure before the window closes, not after the bill arrives. It also monitors ERCOT’s Batch Zero and queue notices so you’re never caught off guard by a classification or timeline change.
The 5CP season ends September 30, and this final stretch determines a full year of your capacity tag.
Intellastar Energy Analyst flags high-probability 5CP days before they happen, using load forecasts and historical peak patterns, so your team can curtail or shift load on the days that actually count instead of every hot afternoon.
A summer with 10 days above 27,000 MW of peak load is a preview of tighter capability periods ahead.
Intellastar Energy Analyst reviews your UCAP tag history against this year’s peak pattern so you can size your winter capability position with real data instead of guesswork, well before the next ICAP auction window opens.