The Northeast power grid appears to have weathered the January storm with relatively few large-scale problems.

Grid operator PJM reported that it had “adequate power supplies and maintained operating reserve margins” through the storm. It reported no concerns with fuel availability and said it expected no reliability issues through the weekend of January 6-7.

Line failure forced the Pilgrim station offline. Credit: EntergyHowever, in Massachusetts, Entergy Corp. said it shut its 688 megawatt Pilgrim nuclear power plant after one of the two lines that connect the reactor to New England’s electric grid failed.

“There are no immediate reliability issues to the local area” after the shutdown, Reuters quoted an ISO New England spokesperson as saying.

Even with the loss of Pilgrim, the New England grid had a reserve of more than 2,100 MW of generating capacity, easing concerns of power outages.

The ISO-NE spokesperson said, however, that Pilgrim’s loss challenged the region on fuel availability. The region usually gets about half of its power from gas-fired generators, and received more electricity from oil-fired units instead of gas.

An Entergy spokesman said the company was working to determine the cause of the line loss.

The storm is seen by some of a test of Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s argument in favor of subsidizing baseload coal and nuclear power plants. Keeping those plants online could better ensure grid reliability during events such as extreme weather.