PJM's own 7-day hourly load forecast, plotted against realized demand and split across the transmission zones from Chicago to the Carolinas — updated as each vintage is published.
Fetching the latest published forecast…
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PJM RTO load forecast — next 7 days, hourly (MW)
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Forecast details
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PJM load forecast
PJM's own 7-day hourly load forecast, plotted against realized demand and split across the transmission zones from Chicago to the Carolinas — updated as each vintage is published.
How much power will PJM need this week?
PJM demand peaks at 154,106 MW on Tue, 5 PM, against a low of 78,297 MW — a swing of 75,809 MW across the window. AEP (the Ohio Valley and Appalachia) is the heaviest area at 24,679 MW, 16% of the system peak.
What settled — the realized values every forecast here is scored against.
Forecast demandforecast
The grid operator's own published forecast for these hours. Source: PJM.
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The track record
Every settled hour scored against what each forecast said beforehand.
Average miss per hour — smaller is better
PPJM 7-day load forecast (day-ahead)1,665 MW24h
The window peaked at 130,335 MW on Thu, 4 PM; PJM 7-day load forecast (day-ahead) called it 130,397 MW — 62 MW high.
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Where the demand is
The same window, split by transmission zone — each area’s own curve.
AEP16%
the Ohio Valley and Appalachia
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Which hours are tightest
Every hour of the window, shaded by load.
Forecast load by day and hour of day
0
6
12
18
Thu, 8/27
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Forecast by transmission zone
Forecast by transmission zone
Transmission zone
Peak (MW)
Peak hour
Low (MW)
Average (MW)
AEP
24,679
Tue, 3 PM
14,059
19,624
DOM
24,336
Tue, 5 PM
14,093
19,059
COMED
19,347
Tue, 5 PM
9,443
14,204
ATSI
12,816
Tue, 4 PM
6,063
9,368
APS
8,771
Wed, 5 PM
4,280
6,432
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How each forecast has done
Accuracy by forecast
Forecast
Avg miss (MW)
Avg miss %
Bias
Hours
PJM 7-day load forecast (day-ahead)
1,665
1.6%
−881
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What was scored
Each forecast as it stood 24 hours before the hour it predicted, against what settled. Smaller is better on every column. Bias is signed: positive means the forecast ran high.
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Where these forecasts come from
Forecast providers on this page
Forecast
Produced by
Method
Horizon
Forecast demand
PJM
PJM 7-Day Load Forecast (load_frcstd_7_day), by forecast area
7 days ahead, hourly
Uncertainty
PJM publishes a point forecast with no confidence interval. Day-ahead errors are typically a few percent and grow with the horizon, concentrating on fast-moving weather and on holiday load patterns.
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What this shows
What this shows
PJM operates the grid for 65 million people across thirteen states and the District of Columbia — the largest electricity market in North America. Its 7-day load forecast is the hourly projection the market schedules against. This page plots the current vintage against what has settled, then splits the same forecast across the transmission zones: ComEd around Chicago, the Mid-Atlantic utilities, Dominion in Virginia, AEP across the Ohio Valley.
Why it matters
Load drives price, and in PJM load is also the growth story: data-center demand — concentrated in Dominion's Northern Virginia territory — is pushing zone peaks to records year after year. The forecast peak is what capacity commitments, reserve margins, and day-ahead prices all key off.
How current it is
PJM republishes the forecast on a rolling basis and Ask the Grid keeps every vintage, so each hour shows the most recently issued number for that hour. The realized-demand line comes from PJM's five-minute instantaneous load feed, which tracks to within minutes of real time.
Connect your agent to mcp.askthegrid.com and this forecast is a tool call away — the same host Claude and ChatGPT connectors already use.
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What people ask
What is the PJM load forecast?+
It is PJM's hourly projection of electricity demand across its thirteen-state footprint for the next seven days, published per forecast area and for the RTO as a whole. PJM schedules generation commitments against it, which makes it the demand number the market actually trades around.
How big is PJM's peak demand?+
Summer peaks run roughly 140-160 GW for the RTO — the largest of any US market. The zone table shows how that splits: the Mid-Atlantic core, ComEd, Dominion, and AEP each carry loads that would rank among the biggest grids in the country on their own.
Why is PJM demand growing?+
Data centers, above everything else. Northern Virginia is the largest data-center market in the world and sits in Dominion's PJM zone; electrification and manufacturing add to it. After two decades of flat load, PJM's own forecasts now show sustained growth, which is reshaping its capacity market and interconnection queue.