Featured Articles
| Tuesday Mar 20, 2018 | |
| Over the past ten years we have seen a litany of pipeline projects in the Northeast designed to reverse the flow of natural gas that typically flowed from the Gulf. Transco, Texas Eastern, Tennessee Gas Pipeline, Columbia and Texas Gas Pipeline have all reversed course with the growth of Marcellus and Utica production. Earlier this month, that flow had jumped all the way out to 7.4 BCF per day that is moving from the production basins down to the Gulf. But since that point, the volume has continually slid lower as a number of factors have weighed on the transport economics. After seeing a mild month of January, the Northeast and Midwest have flipped around to the cold side providing well above normal space heating in the Northeast. Dominion LDC load is averaging .3 BCF above the ... » read more | |
| Monday Mar 19, 2018 | |
| In case you are not aware, it has been a very volatile winter down in Southern California. Not only have the gas prices been volatile, due to SoCalGas' system having both pipeline receipt and Aliso Canyon storage limitations, such that even normal temperatures can result in price spikes, but also the politics have been quite volatile. In this Newsletter we want to bring to light a recent series of letters between California Senator Henry Stern, the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC), and SoCalGas. The spat between these three brought me great reading joy, so sharing is a must. Starting things off at the beginning of March was a very reasonable letter from SoCalGas to the CPUC, found here (snippet in Figure 1). The letter requested immediate ... » read more | |
| Friday Mar 16, 2018 | |
| ERCOT is the only centralized market in the US without a capacity market. Generators in ERCOT are expected to earn their revenue via the short term energy and ancillary services markets. ERCOT has been tweaking its market design over the years so that real-time energy prices will spike during times of shortage. Along those lines, in June of 2014 ERCOT implemented its Operating Reserve Demand Curve which is known by its acronym, ORDC. The ORDC creates an adder to the real-time price under certain scarcity conditions. When operating reserves fall below a certain level the ORDC kicks in, increasing the real-time price by increasing amounts as reserves become increasingly scarce. The following figure depicts the ORDC in general terms. Figure 1 | ERCOT Operating Reserve Demand Curve ... » read more | |
| Thursday Mar 15, 2018 | |
| The Northeast just can’t seem to get a break. There have been 3 Nor’easters that landed in the region over the past 3 weeks. While none of the recent storms have matched the bomb cyclone of January, each wintry blast brought massive snowfall and heavy winds to the region that has not been able to shake 'Ole Man Winter'. Figure 1 | Northeast Blocking Pattern Nor’easters develop when arctic winds blow down from Canada. The cold air moves southeast, and storms begin to brew as the winds reach warmer air generally found in high pressure systems over the ocean. This has made New England a prime breeding ground for these storms to develop. Over the course of this year, a blocking pattern has held with a low pressure system sitting over the East Coast and a high pressure ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Mar 14, 2018 | |
| After a warm and volatile end to February, we have seen temperatures across the Northeast trend down and shift below normal to start this week. Average temperatures in Philadelphia fell into the mid-30s with similar downside seen across the other major PJM load zones. Figure 1| Philadelphia Temperatures Feb 1st - ... » read more | |
| Tuesday Mar 13, 2018 | |
| Winter weather is not going away any time soon. This is a stark contrast to what the forecasters called for just four weeks weeks ago. By this time we were expected to have broad warming across the West with normal temperatures in the East and Gulf. This was seen as an early beginning to spring and an early end to space heating for many areas of the country. ... » read more | |
| Monday Mar 12, 2018 | |
| This has been a busy winter writing about SoCalGas Company. If you are a gas subscriber you can find our NG Market Flashes here, while if you are a power subscriber you will find our California Market Flashes here and here. Coming into this winter season, SoCalGas' pipeline system was in disorder following the early fall explosion on L235 in the Mojave Desert's ... » read more | |
| Friday Mar 9, 2018 | |
| The states of Washington and Oregon just finished their abbreviated legislative sessions. Democrats in both states attempted to pass carbon legislation. At this point in time we can’t be sure whether the legislation simply didn’t have enough support or if it was just too big a lift to manage in an abbreviated session. My sense is that in a full session, which ... » read more | |
| Thursday Mar 8, 2018 | |
| SPP saw a surge of wind throughout the last weekend, serving over 50% of the region's load for nearly the entire time. While there were some curtailments along the way, these were much lower than we would have expected when compared to the fall of 2017. This time around SPP was better able to handle the massive increases in wind. » read more | |
| Wednesday Mar 7, 2018 | |
| While the worst is likely behind us, winter is far from over from a power market perspective. March can mean something different each year depending on just how long winter wants to hang around. Sometimes it is a joyful transition into spring full flowers and some much needed sunshine. Other years it is a miserable extension of winter that makes you ... » read more | |
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