With 160 million people in 30 states under alert for extreme temperatures, the U.S. Department of Energy has declared an emergency as a heat wave bears down on a huge part of the nation’s electrical grid.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issued an Energy Emergency Alert, directing officials of the biggest electrical grid, PJM Interconnections in the Mid-Atlantic region, to take action to prevent blackouts and ensure essential operations like hospitals are fully functioning during the heat wave.

“Maintaining affordable, reliable, and secure power in the PJM service territory is non-negotiable,” Wright said in a statement on Tuesday.

PJM supplies power to about 65 million customers in Washington, D.C., and in all or parts of 13 states, including Delaware, Michigan, Maryland, Kentucky, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

Wright’s emergency declaration, which went into effect at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday and will run through 11:59 p.m. on Friday, also directs PJM to conserve energy by curtailing power to data centers that have backup generators and other non-emergency facilities that use a lot of electricity.

PJM said it is forecasting an electricity peak demand of 166,304 megawatts, or the average total electrical demand by consumers for one hour, on Thursday — which would break a record set in 2006.

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