Investing.com -- Jefferies reported that US utilities faced performance challenges during early July due to heat and storms, with significant outages occurring between July 4 and July 5.

The power grid handled July 3 heat well, but storm activity caused major disruptions. WE Energies, a subsidiary of WEC Energy Group, was the only notable outage on July 2, affecting approximately 31,000 customers, or about 3% of its customer base.

The most severe outages occurred overnight into July 4 in Michigan, affecting DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) and CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), and in New Jersey, impacting FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) and Public Service Enterprise Group (NYSE: PEG). Pennsylvania recorded the largest number of outages on July 5.

Michigan outages lasted longer than others, with DTE Energy reporting over 100,000 customers without power on Sunday evening. Jefferies noted that Michigan continues to show below-average reliability, which presents a risk for investor-owned utilities in the state.

PJM Interconnection reported that electric demand peaked at 162.7 gigawatts on July 2, below the forecasted 167.0 gigawatts. The grid operator used up to 6 gigawatts of emergency demand response to avoid setting a new record. PJM declared a maximum generation emergency that evening, which could result in potential penalties.

The New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission issued a final order in a 2-1 vote ruling that a $400 million PIPE transaction between TXNM Energy and Blackstone from June 2025 is void. The commission did not require a full refiling of the merger case.

Baltimore Gas & Electric, an Exelon (NASDAQ: EXC) subsidiary, filed a rate case on July 2 seeking a $156 million increase, which would raise average residential monthly bills by 4%, or $8 per month.

Separately, approximately 1,600 union workers at PECO Energy went on strike.