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| Friday Jan 27, 2017 | |
| Some of the best academic research related to power markets comes out of the University of California at Berkeley’s Energy Institute. In August of 2016 a California power markets academic dream team of Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, Frank Wolak, and Matthew Zaragoza-Watkins published a paper titled “Expecting the Unexpected: Emissions Uncertainty and Environmental Market Design.” This is an update, re-work, and extension of a paper that the same crew published back in 2014. There are a number of very interesting insights and findings hidden ... » read more | |
| Thursday Jan 26, 2017 | |
| Since the beginning of the winter we have seen Alberta gas demand realize at levels much higher than forecasted. During the two Arctic air events in December and then again in January, system demand records were broken in each instance. Because of a the simultaneous demand on downstream pipelines and a drop in native production, the Alberta storage draws were quite large. Figure 1 | Alberta - Nova System Demand - (scale is negative) From the beginning of December to present, 78 BCF of natural gas has been taken out of the ground to source the daily ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Jan 25, 2017 | |
| Since the largest methane leak in the history of the United States was finally plugged last February the relationship between Aliso Canyon and Californians has been.. complicated. For the most part the facility had been shut down until inspections of all the wells can be completed and approved for further injections. However, when times get tough Socal has reserved the right to withdraw the remaining gas in order to balance high demand days. Yesterday was one of these days as the colder/wet weather moving through Southern California ... » read more | |
| Tuesday Jan 24, 2017 | |
| Storms have continued to batter California over the weekend and lasted through yesterday. As you can see in Figure 1 below, there was a massive river of moisture that moved through the heart of Southern California and into the Southwest. Along the Northern Coast it brought rain while inland you can see the mountain ranges showing heavy snow levels. Figure 1 | California Jet Stream and Precipitation Pattern The latest precipitation charts has the Northern Sierra region moving up to 51.8 inches (215% of normal at this time of year) through ... » read more | |
| Monday Jan 23, 2017 | |
| Last year at this time, engineers were closing in the secondary well being drilled along side the leaky well at Aliso Canyon. If you recall, after trying several other unsuccessful options, they opted to drill a another well that would ultimately serve as a starting point to navigate over and plug the well in question. This was after 3 months of the leak spewing gas into the air and citizens in surrounding neighborhoods having to find different living arrangements. During that time, SoCal Gas operators were taking as much out of storage as possible ... » read more | |
| Friday Jan 20, 2017 | |
| The CAISO released some very interesting study results related to the 'supply of' and 'demand for' flexible capacity in the next several years as the renewable penetration rate continues to march higher. While this is a CAISO issue today, as more renewables are installed in other markets around the country, the experience of the CAISO may be relevant to other markets in the future. Here’s the bottom line. The CAISO does not have the right mix of flexible capacity resources that will be necessary to meet the net load ramps (load less renewables) in the next few ... » read more | |
| Thursday Jan 19, 2017 | |
| The New England gas market for years has been a constrained gas island where the main source of supply, Algonquin Pipeline, doesn't have the capacity to meet the space heating demands of the region. Because there have been no major pipeline expansions to meet the power plant demand during the peak consumption episodes, prices have a tendency to disconnect from the rest of North America. In Figure 1 below, you can see just how volatile the cash market has been over the past year. Figure 1 | Algonquin Cash Prices One of the swing sources of supply to the New ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Jan 18, 2017 | |
| Earlier this month Governor Cuomo announced a plan to close the Indian Point Nuclear Facility by April 2021. The Entergy owned and operated power plant consists of two 1,000 MW reactors which sit on the Hudson River a little more than 30 miles north of Manhattan. The current plan calls for the first reactor to be shut down by April 2020, with the second reactor following the next year. Figure 1 | Indian Point Energy Center The closure is a big win for Cuomo and environmental groups alike who have claimed that Indian Point's repeated ... » read more | |
| Tuesday Jan 17, 2017 | |
| With yesterday being MLK day (holiday), most of the markets were closed and the ones that are open have very little volume. As of last Friday, we have started to see the noms for Sabine LNG pick up with the uptick showing up in CCTP (Cheniere Creole Trail Pipeline). Figure 1 | Sabine LNG Noms - Daily It should be noted that yesterday's I2 cycle shifted back to previous levels with today's back to the 1.8 BCF level. Figure 2 | Sabine Gas Noms - Daily As we move into the back half of the month, we will continue to watch the noms as the daily cycles come in ... » read more | |
| Monday Jan 16, 2017 | |
| It has been nearly a week since the Portland metro area saw 14 inches of snow dumped on it. The city shut down for 48 hours as the plows tried to make their way across all the major highways and streets. The tow trucks were in high demand as semi-trucks were turned sideways on any incline or overpass while individual drivers left their cars on the side of the roads (or in the roads) to catch a ride home with passing vehicles with all-wheel/4 wheel drive. During this time, the Stumptown Birkebeiner was manifesting itself once again. Figure 1 | Stumptown ... » read more | |