in effect
This is a presidential executive order (Executive Order 14262, signed April 8, 2025). It directs the Secretary of Energy to make it easier to keep power plants running and to measure how much spare generating capacity each region of the grid has. It frames these steps as a response to rising electricity demand and to a national energy emergency declared in an earlier order.
The Department of Energy is told to speed up and standardize how it issues emergency orders under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act — the authority that lets plants run at full capacity when a grid operator warns that a temporary power cutoff may be needed to avoid a total blackout. Within 30 days, the Secretary must create a single method for calculating current and expected “reserve margins” (the cushion between available supply and demand) for every region FERC regulates, and use it to flag regions whose cushion is too thin; that method and its results must be posted on DOE’s website within 90 days. The method must credit each type of generator based on how it has actually performed in past real-world grid conditions. DOE must also set up a process to reassess this regularly and a protocol to name which plants are “critical” to reliability, using available legal tools (including Section 202(c)) to keep those plants online. Under that protocol, a generator larger than 50 megawatts could be blocked from shutting down or switching fuels if doing so would lower a region’s credited generating capacity.
Owners and operators of large power plants — especially those over 50 megawatts in regions with thin reserve margins — are most directly affected, since they could be required to keep operating or be limited in retiring or changing fuel sources. The Department of Energy, FERC-regulated regional grid operators, and utilities carry out and work within these new procedures. The order states it creates no legally enforceable rights and is to be carried out consistent with existing law and available funding.