Instantaneous Load

PJM metered load sampled every five minutes by area, where 'PJM RTO' is the whole-RTO system total and the remaining areas are the transmission-zone operating regions (AEP, COMED, DOM, PSEG, and so on).

Load data PJM market

Query with the agent Open on map

Native record

reported area x 5-minute observation

5-minute publication cadence

Evidence

Observed market data

Published observations from the named source

In Ask the Grid

Load zones on the PJM map

Values for the live grid surface

Overview

Because it posts within minutes, this is the live demand signal for PJM — system load, zonal load, and the shape of the daily peak — unlike the hourly metered-load tables that settle on a delay. Source: PJM Market Data.

Query contract

At one event_time, area='PJM RTO' is the whole-RTO total. Named regional rollups overlap individual transmission zones and are not additive.

Analysis rules

Use PJM RTO directly for system load. Never sum PJM RTO, regional rollups, and transmission zones.
For an area ranking, compare rows from one exact common event_time and distinguish regional rollups from individual zones.

Access

Query from your own tools

Use the guarded HTTP endpoint directly, or connect an MCP client and load the dataset contract with describe_data before calling query_data.

PJM MCP API reference

HTTP endpoint

POST /api/v1/datasets/pjm_inst_load/query

Need the full history of this dataset in Snowflake, Databricks or your own storage? Data services delivers it on a schedule.

Schema4

Column

Type

event_timeDateTime64(6, 'UTC')

areaLowCardinality(String)

instantaneous_loadNullable(Float64)

ingested_atDateTime64(6, 'UTC')

Sample data

event_time	area	instantaneous_load	ingested_at
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	UG	74.6	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	RECO	118.955559	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	PS	3423.4165	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	PN	1433.68054	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	PL	2910.93945	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	PJM WESTERN REGION	36856.51	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	PJM SOUTHERN REGION	13491.4844	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	PJM RTO	72108.5547	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	PJM MID ATLANTIC REGION	20736.2637	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	PEP	2173.149	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	PE	2872.11182	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	ME	1217.39514	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	JC	1657.03809	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	EKPC	1022.93231	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	DUQ	1078.31885	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	DPL	1374.76147	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	DOM	13491.4844	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	DEOK	2046.67188	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	DAYTON	1450.67249	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	COMED	8465.188	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	BC	2352.734	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	ATSI	5998.11475	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	APS	4229.4585	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	AEP	13589.4541	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668
2026-10-12 07:50:01.000000	AE	815.7115	2026-10-12 07:53:13.325668

Coverage

100.0% complete0 gap days99 days with data

Show coverage history

Coverage: 100.0%Days with data: 99Gaps: 0

2026

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Related load data

Related load data
Dataset	Description
7-Day Load ForecastPJM · hourly (7-day horizon)	PJM's seven-day-ahead hourly load forecast by forecast area, refreshed through the day. Rows are keyed by target time (event_time) with the issue time in evaluated_at_utc; take the latest vintage per target hour via an argMax over evaluated_at_utc. Forecast areas match the very-short-term feed (utility names, RTO_COMBINED for the system total). This is the table for tomorrow's peak and the week-ahead demand outlook. Source: PJM Market Data.
Day-ahead hourly demand bidsPJM · day publication	PJM's Day-ahead hourly demand bids. Each row preserves a publisher record, workbook row, or report document with its source member and row index. Source timestamps, units, geographic scope, and revision qualifiers are retained in record_json; event_time is collection time; completed_at is when the entire document became available.
PJM Hourly Actual LoadPJM · hourly	Actual hourly electricity demand in PJM, one row per hour with a system total and one column per load area. 75,672 hours, 2017-12 to now. Columns: system_mw plus aep_mw, ap_mw, atsi_mw, dayton_mw, deok_mw, dominion_mw, duquesne_mw, ekpc_mw, mid_atlantic_mw, northern_illinois_mw. system_mw is DERIVED as the sum of the ten areas, but unlike NYISO it has been checked: against PJM's own published RTO total over 517 overlapping hours the mean difference is 0.009% and the maximum 0.938%. Wide rather than long, so "load right now" and "the 10 load area shares of it" are one row, not 11. Every market's load table in this catalog shares the system_mw column and the same hourly grain, so a cross-market demand comparison needs no reshaping.
PJM Seven-Day Load ForecastPJM · hourly (reissued through the day)	PJM's seven-day hourly demand forecast in long form: issued_at (when PJM published the forecast), event_time (the hour being forecast), area, and forecast_mw. 4.14M rows across 2,033 issue vintages and 25 areas, covering forecasts issued since 2026-05-21 and targets out to seven days ahead. Because issue time and target time are separate columns, this table can answer both 'what does PJM expect for tomorrow evening' and 'what did PJM expect for that hour twelve hours before it happened' — the second question needs the issue-time filter, and getting it wrong turns a forecast evaluation into hindsight. The area column mixes three levels of the same hierarchy: the RTO total (RTO_COMBINED), three regional aggregates (MID_ATLANTIC_REGION, SOUTHERN_REGION, WESTERN_REGION), transmission zones (AEP, COMED, DOMINION, ...) and Mid-Atlantic sub-zones (PSE&G/MIDATL, PECO/MIDATL, ...). Summing across areas double-counts, in some cases three times over.