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| Tuesday Nov 14, 2023 | |
| Once upon a time, there was this layer of supply that was known as baseload generation that allowed the utilities to gather their thoughts on how to best manage the rest of their supply portfolio to make sure they are balanced to the demand on the grid. The types of units that had a stronghold on this portion of the supply stack were that of nuclear and coal-fired generators while the latter was utilized to shape things along with the natural gas fleet, the former was old reliable 24 hours of the day unless there was a planned refueling outage or an unplanned situation that brought once of the units down for a period. There are rare occurrences when a nuclear facility just has bad luck, and the facility is shut down due to the economics surrounding the fix; this was in play ... » read more | |
| Monday Nov 13, 2023 | |
| ERCOT is a market that moved front and center when it comes to its balancing components. On the demand side there is always conversation about load growth given the economic construct around the state to bring business to the Lone Star State. We also have population growth as a factor as the movement from West has been well documented since the pandemic. Both components assist in driving up the power demand hourly profile, which we saw this summer with the heat dome creating a situation where extreme temperatures were in play for individuals and businesses to try and stay cool. So far this winter, we have not had any extreme cold events to drive up the power demand for heating the same homes that impact the AC demand. Figure 1 | ERCOT Net Load Profile – ... » read more | |
| Friday Nov 10, 2023 | |
| A week ago, I updated my phone to iOS 17. Along with some straightforward quality-of-life features, such as (at last!) the ability to set multiple timers at once, Apple has rolled out a new “Smart Home” widget. The widget, which is simply called “Grid Forecast”, is supposed to keep you informed about the times of day when the electricity generated in your area is cleaner. This would let you, say, charge your electric vehicle during times when more renewable energy is available, or turn off your air conditioner when there’s less. As I understand it, at some point you’ll even be able to set these things up to happen automatically: plug in your electric car whenever it’s convenient for you, and your phone will control when the car charges. I ... » read more | |
| Thursday Nov 9, 2023 | |
| The past month saw the Pacific Northwest rise to the forefront of western power markets in the US yet again. The circumstances surrounding the Mid-C in October is one of the topics covered in our latest Newsletter Monthly Article, “Charging the Grid”. The colder weather pattern at the end of October hit the Pacific Northwest front and center. The timing was impeccable given that it was a time that the hydro system was limited when it came to flexibility and the transmission grid had the DC intertie out of service for its planned maintenance while the AC intertie was de-rated as work needed to be completed post-summer and prior to the winter season starting. The weather pattern was driving up the heating demand via rescom and that of the power profile where ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Nov 8, 2023 | |
| In addition to our Daily CAISO Battery Dashboard, subscribers to our Platinum Plus Renewables package can get deeper insight through our CAISO Monthly Battery dashboard. This dashboard, which comes out on the first of every month, provides a wider breadth of data and allows for identifying patterns and trends across several months and even years. In our most recent article, titled ‘Checking in on the Monthlies’, we examine the most recent monthly dashboard and identify some new trends, as well as check in on some patterns we’ve previously identified. Read on for a sneak peek. The first trend is the continued fall of regulation prices, even with relatively strong gas prices between May 2022 and April 2023. Higher gas prices across those months normally would have resulted ... » read more | |
| Tuesday Nov 7, 2023 | |
| Leaves are falling and Mother Nature is delivering a precipitation pattern that lines up with some of the previous ‘atmospheric river systems’ that pushed through the region two-years ago and last year down in California. The pattern has mostly been along the I-5 corridor up to this point, but over the last couple of days the pattern jumped over into Central Washington and parts of Western Canada. This type of weather is helping the system operators manage the Chum Operations, which kicked in at the end of October and will carry over well into November. Figure 1 | Chum Operations and Precipitation Chum operations start with maintaining a tailwater level below Bonneville Dam during this key time of year when spawning season kicks off. The ‘spawning ... » read more | |
| Monday Nov 6, 2023 | |
| This week is going to be presenting a “V” shaped wind profile along with moderate temperatures across the SPP. The combination of the two will impact the light load block of hours more so than the heavy load. In fact, the impact of the wind and lack of load early in the day exposes the ramping hours as thermal units will need to place their start-up costs into their respective offers. Figure 1 | SPP Net Load Breakdown – Hourly This played out for Monday as the two hubs saw the light load clear in SPP-South slide down to $5.54 while SPP-North ventured into negative territory (clearing -$2.25). Over in the heavy load, the two hubs jumped up to the mid $30 level given the circumstances mentioned above. Figure 2 | SPP Day-Ahead/Real-Time Price Settles As we ... » read more | |
| Friday Nov 3, 2023 | |
| The Renewable Monthly Report (September Report), which are apart of the EnerygGPS Platinum Plus eCommerce Package, details how each ERCOT trading hub played out over the course of the last three months in comparison to the previous two years. The table in Figure 1 lays out the monthly statistics for each pertinent zone and the weighted average price for wind in the North and West regions and solar tied to the Houston trading hub. Scouring through the data, it is clear that this past August sticks out as the 2023 North hub heat rate value is octupled in comparison to the previous two years. Figure 1 | First Part of Figure 16 From Renewable Monthly Report, September 2023 It’s not possible to point to any one single factor as the driver of the summer scarcity pricing as ... » read more | |
| Thursday Nov 2, 2023 | |
| There have been some big changes this fall in CAISO, shaking things up where it comes to renewables within the ISO and their performance compared to the past several years. The focus is on CAISO solar where the resource saw its value drop dramatically during the month of September, within Southern California in particular. We first wrote about the changes to CAISO’s solar ratio at the beginning of last month in our Newsletter Monthly Renewable Report, “September 2023 – End of Summer Transitions”. We followed it up with a more in-depth analysis shortly afterwards in our Newsletter Special Report, “Capturing the Roller Coaster Ratio”. The Monthly Renewable Report is available as part of the EnergyGPS Newsletter Platinum Plus ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Nov 1, 2023 | |
| Last week Alberta experienced its first winter weather in Q4 2023. With temperatures more than 20 degrees colder than normal for late October, overnight temperatures dropped into the single digits. While Alberta is no stranger to chilly weather, this cold snap came earlier in the year than usual. The extreme below-normal temperatures lasted four days. In this blog, we’ll look at how the region fared with this late October big chill. Figure 1 | Alberta Actual HDDs and HDD Differences from Normal for October 2023 Heating demand rose as temperatures plummeted. Compared to the previous week, peak load was up 0.5 GW from 10 GW to 10.5 GW. The light load saw average demand jump half a gigawatt. During the middle of the week, wind was nowhere to be found. With megawatts on the ties in ... » read more | |