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| Monday Jun 12, 2023 | |
| The energy space continues to present opportunities across North America as natural gas continues down the path of higher production volume and molecules being placed into storage. On the electricity side of the equation, we have the lever known as power burns that are derived from renewables netting out the demand across the grid along with being the balancing component when max storage injections are being met in the spring/early summer. Figure 1 | Lower 48 Natural Gas Storage Level – EIA The daily conversation is around the market fundamentals while the weekly/monthly discussions detail what is on the horizon when it comes to structural changes tied to regulatory/policy decisions centered around a specific commission or at the state/federal level. The changes apply ... » read more | |
| Thursday Jun 8, 2023 | |
| Our neighbors to the North have found themselves in the news more than they would probably like in recent days thanks to heat and wildfires that are causing reverberations across both Canada and the United States. Alberta is in the middle of a warm streak with temperatures into the 80s, which prompted wildfires across the region earlier this month. As of Sunday, the state of emergency was lifted as most of the fires were under control, but the warmth remains and is heating up the AESO energy markets. Unfortunately, on the other side of the country the wildfires situation is less controlled, as our readers along the East coast and around the Great Lakes can attest by looking out their windows. Smoke from these Canadian wildfires is spreading over much of North America ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Jun 7, 2023 | |
| After a flashy commercial with speeding cars down long stretches of highway and promises of high fuel efficiency, the same warning always plays- mileage may vary. Whether driving 70 MPH on empty freeways or stuck in traffic within city limits, so many factors go into how far a car will be able to go on a tank of gas. With energy the same concept applies as an extra megawatt of solar in the middle of the day is a lot less valuable in a region with abundant solar than a megawatt in the evening ramp or in a region with only a few gigawatts of solar. For regions with fish spill requirements, the same amount water could be much more efficient at generating power if it is sent through the dam when the spill requirements are not in effect. In our most recent eCommerce Platiinum (Package) ... » read more | |
| Tuesday Jun 6, 2023 | |
| ERCOT has been walking a tight rope when it comes to being the leader when it comes to wind generation making its way to the grid as the last two months have been trending lower with April’s 2023 profile looking more like 2021 while the May 2023 took a life of its own and sliced down to average just over 5.5 GW during the middle of the day. Figure 1 | ERCOT 12x24 Renewable Profiles The graph above is an illustration of the 12x24 wind and solar profiles within ERCOT for the past three years. Knowing that the capacity has not changed, in fact grown for both commodities mentioned, the last three months of wind generation is quite amazing as Mother Nature seems to know that the grid is swimming with the growing solar generation (seen in the middle pane profile). The ... » read more | |
| Monday Jun 5, 2023 | |
| The West energy markets always seem to have some sort of twist and turn that creates discussion amongst the market participants. For example, in years past the natural gas space was all about the lack of storage tied to Aliso Canyon and an aging El Paso pipeline while the Pacific Northwest dealt with its own pipeline issue around the rupture in British Columbia back in October 2018. This past winter was one for ages as the season started off with colder temperatures across the region, which led to early residential/commercial heating demand along with power burns. As a result, the California gas entities were under distress early and often as the power burns were not going to be the toggle to allow them to balance as the generation was needed. Figure 1 | PGAE Natural Gas ... » read more | |
| Friday Jun 2, 2023 | |
| Over the past two months, EnergyGPS has promoted it’s joint venture with Gary Ackerman, where the end game is provided market participants in the energy sector with a version of the ‘Burrito’ that incorporates all the usual sections Gary is notoriously known for along with a little spicy salsa of our own where we include an editorial on a topic of choice that should resonate with the audience. Figure 1 | The Burrito – EnergyGPS For those of you who do not know about the ‘Burrito’, it is 5-8 page piece of content that covers topics that make their way into the energy space but many times are outside the realm of the daily trading activity. The topics are just as important as they cover some of the root causes to how a market is being shaped by on the ... » read more | |
| Thursday Jun 1, 2023 | |
| The month of May has seen relatively low demand across the country, as well as wind generation that has lagged behind last spring in many power markets which has combined to expose solar resources—in the old guard of CAISO as well as more recent rival for the crown of solar king in ERCOT, all the way down to other markets where solar capacity is a much smaller portion of the overall supply stack, albeit a rapidly expanding one in PJM and MISO. With summer right around the corner, the solar piece is even more relevant and a frequent focus of our recent written content. Within each piece of content around the solar penetration within a specific region lies two components, the first is tied to the midday curtailment risk while the second is associated to the mentioned ... » read more | |
| Wednesday May 31, 2023 | |
| With Memorial Day weekend in the rearview, it’s the unofficial start of summer and the beginning of the end for spring outage season. Over the last few months, more than 35 nuclear power plants have gone offline for scheduled maintenance. Some were off for a few weeks, while others stopped contributing to the grid for more than 2 months. With temperatures and demand ramping up, the baseload nuclear power is returning to the grid with the change of seasons. Before it wraps up completely, let’s look back on the spring 2023 outage season. Figure 1 | US Nuclear Outages in Megawatts with Forecast (2019 – 2023) The shape of the spring nuclear outage season was a little different this year. The figure above shows total outages for nuclear plants across the country in ... » read more | |
| Tuesday May 30, 2023 | |
| The month of May has delivered another round of weather chaos across the country as Western Canada (specifically Alberta) is dealing with forest fires that are ravaging areas that were once thought of as untouchable to the blazes themselves. The Pacific Northwest and now California was presented with warmer weather that is extreme enough to move mountains of snowpack into the river system. The South Central region has been dealing with pressure system that warrants lower wind generation, thus the region has stronger power burns. The Midwest, Ohio Valley and Northeast seemed to be caught in the spring-like spiral as cooler overnight lows kept things in check during the day. Figure 1 | Pacific Northwest Hydro Generation – Daily Average The graph above displays the Pacific ... » read more | |
| Friday May 26, 2023 | |
| ERCOT continues to be a focal point in the energy space as it has been a couple of years since Storm-Uri took the grid operations to the bring. Prior to the event, the grid was the leader when it came to wind capacity and the solar profile was just starting to percolate to where the volume was enough to be a part of the daily conversation when it comes to the supply/demand balance. In the month/years after Storm-Uri, the ERCOT system operators have been adjusting their grid as the renewable landscape continues to evolve with solar now being a bigger profile within the supply stack. As we have seen in California and the CAISO market, once this happens the balancing act takes on different challenges throughout the year, including the springtime when the power demand is not ... » read more | |