Featured Articles
| Friday Apr 7, 2017 | |
| On Thursday California’s 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento voted 2-1 to uphold California’s cap-and-trade system. This was a huge win for environmentalists and creates an increased level of certainty around California’s carbon regulations. The decision from the Appeals court could still be appealed to the California Supreme Court. The decision makes for an interesting read. Officially titled “Morning Star Packing Company v. State Air Resources Board”, the case evaluates whether the cap-and-trade system represents a tax on ... » read more | |
| Thursday Apr 6, 2017 | |
| Last summer the Algonquin Pipeline had a very disruptive maintenance schedule that lasted from the first of April through the end of October. The capacity on the pipeline through the Stony Point compressor was cut from 1.2 to .67 BCF while construction crews looped in Spectra's Algonquin Incremental to Market expansion. Once the construction was completed in November, the rating of the pipeline through Stony Point was increased from the derated amount of .67 to 1.8 BCF per day. This summer there is another series of maintenance derates but they are nothing like what ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Apr 5, 2017 | |
| As we move into April we are starting to see spring weather creep into the forecasts across the US. In the PNW for instance, the skys have begun to clear and daytime highs are pushing up into the 60s which is a welcome sight after a long wet winter. In the Northeast the overnight lows are running well above freezing and the daytime highs are forecasted to reach 70 degrees as early as next week in Hartford CT. Across the US April is a month of change as the Northern Hemisphere makes the welcome transition from Winter to Summer. The impact of the ... » read more | |
| Tuesday Apr 4, 2017 | |
| As we head into the first full week of April, the CAISO grid is shifting around due to decent load, volatile wind and the import capacity from the Pacific Northwest reverting back to levels we saw at the end of March instead of the lower capacity posted on the transmission outage report late last week. As a result of all this, California's implied heat rates have shifted up but not nearly as high as they could have been given more megawatts can make their way N to S on the Paci transmission line during the morning and evening ramp. Figure 1 | CAISO Day-Ahead ... » read more | |
| Monday Apr 3, 2017 | |
| Last year about this time we rolled out the EnergyGPS California Tracker, where the goal was to cover both the power and natural gas happenings within the state. Over the past twelve months, the rollout has been a success as the feedback from clients has been positive. We continue to cover the regulatory situation with Aliso Canyon, PGAE storage, the renewable penetration and what is going on with the in-state hydro given we this year is one of the wettest on record. This past week, the title of the weekly report was 'The Return of Redwood', as the firm ... » read more | |
| Friday Mar 31, 2017 | |
| It’s Spring Break week for Oregon primary and secondary schools. I’ve spent the week enjoying the warmer climate and stunning sights in Arizona. The sunshine does a body good, especially after a particularly wet, cold, and bleak Oregon winter. Stepping away from the blow-by-blow of the work day allows me to pan out and take a look at things through a slightly broader lens. I’ve been reading articles about the energy industry – the ones I don’t ever get to when I’m at my desk. The Wall Street Journal does a good job covering the ... » read more | |
| Thursday Mar 30, 2017 | |
| Over the past couple few years, California has been the pioneer when it comes to a renewables portfolio standard (RPS). The state has seen growth in both wind and solar with the latter being the generation of choice since 2015. In fact, over the past couple of days, we have seen the peak solar output top the 9,200 MW (see yesterday's newsletter). Adding a little fuel to the fire is the behind the meter movement that is up to 4,900 MW of capacity across California. The combination of this along with wind and hydro, has pushed the implied heat rates in ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Mar 29, 2017 | |
| For the majority of March we have been discussing various cold snaps across the Eastern and Southern portion of the United States while simultaneously monitoring the persistent precipitation levels across the PNW and Northern California. However there is a brighter spot on the map known as Burbank which has fully transitioned out of winter. Figure 1 | Forecasted vs Actual Temperatures - Burbank CA As spring weather kicks into full gear we begin to get a sense of what the solar profile will look through the summer. Specifically, we can ... » read more | |
| Tuesday Mar 28, 2017 | |
| In recent weeks, we have noticed a trend in our PJM power plant analysis. Output from natural gas fired facilities have take a much higher turn and are setting all time highs for this time of the year. This defies the convention that natural gas generation will steal from the market share of coal fired facilities during times where the gas prices are inexpensive. But compared to last year, the natural gas prices serving the PJM grid have almost doubled. Figure 1 | PJM Total NG Generation (2015 - 2017) Last week, the Dominion South daily index moved up to $2.90 ... » read more | |
| Monday Mar 27, 2017 | |
| Someone needs to turn off the spigot here in the Pacific Northwest after another weekend of precipitation in the form of rainfall at the lower elevations and snowpack in the mountains. In fact, as we drove down to Eugene for a soccer weekend, the height of the rivers that ran under I-5 was impressive as many were nearing the overpass bridge. All this precipitation has shifted the Jan-Jul MAF at The Dalles up to 127 MAF, which is 126% of normal. Figure 1 | The Dalles Jan-Jul MAF This steep move up is two-fold as the earlier portion of the climb showed up ... » read more | |
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