NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Northeast Power Coordinating Council, Inc. (NPCC) estimates the region will have an adequate supply of electricity this winter to meet demand, according to its 2025-2026 winter reliability assessment. NPCC’s region covers New York, New England, the provinces of Ontario, Québec, and the Canadian Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
NPCC projects the regional simultaneous peak demand forecast for the entire region of 112,810 MW will occur the week of January 18, 2026. This coincidence peak demand is slightly higher than last winter’s forecast. Approximately 161,426 MW of installed capacity is projected to be in service to meet the forecasted electricity demand.
After accounting for transmission constraints, NPCC’s assessment estimates the region’s spare operable capacity (over and above reserve requirements) ranges from 15,511 to 25,177 MW over the winter period.
New England, New York, Ontario, and Québec all forecast adequate resources to meet their expected winter demand; limited use of operating procedures in the Maritimes are estimated.
A wide range of conditions were analyzed, including higher than expected demand, unexpected generation unavailability, transmission constraints, and reduced transfer capability between neighboring regions.
“The NPCC annual winter assessment provides stakeholders across our region with valuable insights to better inform system and operational planning,” said Charles Dickerson, President and Chief Executive Officer of NPCC. “It is worth noting that while NPCC expects the region will have adequate supply this winter, established procedures are available to maintain system reliability if higher than expected loads and/or additional resource outages occur (for example, resulting from extreme or protracted weather events).”
NPCC supports consistent, ongoing communications with system operators and neighboring regions to further strengthen coordination, improve situational awareness, mitigate risks, and maintain reliability.
“The completion of several transmission projects has reinforced overall regional reliability,” said Phil Fedora, NPCC’s Chief Engineer and Senior Vice President of External Affairs. “For example, the New England Clean Energy Connect is expected to be in service this winter, capable of importing up to 1,200 MW into New England from Québec.”
NPCC’s Reliability Assessment for Winter 2025-2026 is available at: Resources | NPCC.
For more information on NPCC, visit www.npcc.org.
About NPCC
Northeast Power Coordinating Council, Inc. is one of six Regional Entities located throughout the United States, Canada, and portions of Mexico that, in concert with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, seeks to assure a highly reliable, resilient, and secure North American bulk power system through the effective and efficient identification, reduction, and mitigation of reliability risks. NPCC’s geographic area includes the six New England states, the State of New York, the provinces of Ontario, Québec, and the Canadian Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Overall, NPCC covers an area of nearly 1.2 million square miles, populated by approximately 62 million people.
NPCC carries out its mission through: (i) the development of regional reliability standards and compliance assessment and enforcement of continent-wide and Regional Reliability standards; (ii) coordination of system planning, design and operations, and assessment of reliability; and (iii) the establishment of Regionally specific criteria and monitoring and enforcement of compliance with such criteria.
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