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| Thursday Jan 23, 2025 | |
| The frigid temperatures delivered by Mother Nature from this week’s arctic blast are already on the way out, with the cold starting to recede today, but the impact on the power grid and gas pipelines was felt deeply. In the Northeast much of the impact was due to the competition between the sky-high rescom demand as folks cranked up the thermostat in their homes to drive away the chill, displacing a portion of the power burn demand and pushing driving down implied heat rates to push the power grid to look to other sources of thermal generation. But the Northeast is used to feeling the chill and is well-equipped to deal with cold temperatures as well as snowfall. Other parts of the country are not as prepared, and a little snow can have an outsized impact. The ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Jan 22, 2025 | |
| Since the start of the year, eyes have been on the forecasts as cold hovered over much of the country. Over the weekend, the polar vortex arrived and carried with it big impacts for the grids that it hit. We’ve been covering the potential impacts for the Midwest and Northeast in power and natural gas flashes in the last week. Yesterday we looked back at how the Northeast natural gas market reacted in a special report, titled ‘Cold – Icing Power Burns?’. Read on for a sneak peek. Figure 1 | Polar Vortex – January 2025 Starting with the New York area, Transco Z6 NY ended up indexing $97.73 with a range between $75 and $109 while Non-NY settled in at the $37 mark. Up in the Boston area Algonquin tapped the $33.46 mark while Iroquois Zone 1 was slightly ... » read more | |
| Tuesday Jan 21, 2025 | |
| Winter ushers in colder temperatures and frequently covers cities in the Upper Midwest and Northeast with snow. Occasionally, these weather patterns extend to regions like Atlanta, where even a few inches of snow can temporarily bring the city to a standstill. In our latest article title “MVP – The Pipe”, we go over the impact that the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) has made so far this winter. Figure 1 | PJM Monthly Total HDD The figure above illustrates the cumulative monthly Heating Degree Day (HDD) values for November through January in the PJM region. The x-axis represents years starting from 2017, while the y-axis divides the three-month period, with November at the top, December in the middle, and January at the bottom. A gray horizontal line indicates the ... » read more | |
| Friday Jan 17, 2025 | |
| If you’re in the renewables space, it’s essential to have a view of natural gas and vice-versa if you’re in the natural gas space, you need to have a view of renewables. This hasn’t always been the case but now, natural gas prices generally set the market clearing price that renewables might expect to earn in many markets and ongoing penetration of renewables and batteries will continue to displace plenty of molecules of natural gas that would otherwise have been turned into MWhs. In timely fashion, EGPS has released articles and reports this week that cast light on current trends. The EGPS Q4 Renewable Quarterly Report, released this week, combines an in-depth review and discussion of the latest trends in natural gas with our usual ... » read more | |
| Thursday Jan 16, 2025 | |
| After a relatively mild end to 2024 when it comes to winter weather, over the first half of January much of the country has seen waves of deep winter chill spread, bringing cold temperatures and snow. Most of the cold has been concentrated east of the Rockies, however, leaving the West bereft of real winter weather up until this point. Temperatures are now starting to drop here in the Pacific Northwest, with the prospect of freezing weather in Portland later this week and next week, but the changing temperatures are not expected to bring with them any of the moisture that the Northwest is known for. Next week cold will blast again across the Midwest and East, with even locations as far south as Raleigh North Carolina expected to see snowfall, but the Pacific Northwest ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Jan 15, 2025 | |
| EnergyGPS has even more to offer in 2025! We’re expanding our natural gas offerings with two new dashboards this month. The first is a continuation of our pipeline capacity dashboards which already include our West Pipeline Capacity Dashboard and East Pipeline Capacity Dashboard. Our brand new Northeast NG Pipeline Capacity Dashboard will display flows and current available capacities for pipelines across the Northeastern US. Just like the other pipeline capacity dashboards, it will be updated throughout the day as new maintenance notices are posted. All pipeline capacity dashboards are now conveniently located on the EnergyGPS website under Natural Gas > Lower 48 > Pipeline Capacities. Three pipelines are currently being monitored, including Algonquin Gas Transmission ... » read more | |
| Tuesday Jan 14, 2025 | |
| Cold weather is the name of the game during the heart of winter and the 2025 season has not disappointed so far in the Upper Midwest and Northeast regions. The recent chill moves the below-normal temperatures into the Tennessee Valley, Southeast and parts of the South Central as Memphis recorded seven inches of snow while Atlanta accumulated 1.5 inches where the city shut all major events down and asked everyone to stay at home. Figure 1 | Memphis Winter Wonderland While all this was going on east of the Rockies, the Santa Ana winds were wreaking havoc on Southern California where five major fires broke out with the Eaton and Palisades were the two that caused the most damage to existing neighborhoods were structures were destroyed by each blaze. The weeklong journey seems ... » read more | |
| Monday Jan 13, 2025 | |
| When we think of winter gas demand what typically springs to mind is domestic heating demand. This has been the defining feature of the winter season here in the lower 48. In recent winters we have seen this story start to shift as LNG capacity along the gulf coast grows ever larger. Now, we must also consider the other winter demand, a pull on US markets that has steadily inched up over the last two months even as cash prices gain winter premiums. Figure 1 | US LNG Exports (MMCF) The above chart looks at LNG Exports across the current and previous two gas years. Both now and in winter 2023-2024 we see these facilities operating close to their full capacity. It may seem counterintuitive that exports would peak when price is at its highest, but our peak demand lines up with peak demand ... » read more | |
| Friday Jan 10, 2025 | |
| Electrolysis has two definitions: 1) chemical decomposition by passing an electric current through a liquid or solution containing ions and 2) the removal of hair roots on the skin by the application of heat using an electric current. To be clear, this blog is about the former, specifically the production of hydrogen with electricity. See Figure 1 below for clarification. I can’t help you if you’re having an issue with a unibrow. Figure 1| Clarification on Subject of Blog Hydrogen is an essential feedstock in numerous carbon-intensive industries, including chemicals, cement, fertilizer, metals, and fuels and commonly is produced through thermal processes such as steam reforming of hydrocarbons. However, a serious look at decarbonizing major ... » read more | |
| Thursday Jan 9, 2025 | |
| December in ERCOT provided some good examples of how the renewable expansion has changed the landscape within the ISO, even in wintertime. ERCOT was in the spotlight in our latest Renewable Monthly, “December 2024 – Solar Staying Power”, which highlights the key takeaways tied to renewables in ERCOT and other markets across the country each month. December and the rest of the winter typically see the lowest solar output of the year while also seeing the wind profile flatten, losing out on supply during the light load hours in particular compared to the rest of Q4. This was certainly the case this December as well, with the average solar profile for the month losing 2.2 GW from the afternoon peak and 2.7 GW of wind from hour ending 1 (while the midday ... » read more | |