ISO - Monthly Reports

ISO New England "ISO New England is the independent, not-for-profit company authorized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to perform three critical, complex, interconnected roles for the region spanning Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and most of Maine. Together, these three responsibilities help protect the health of the region’s economy and the well-being of its people by ensuring the constant availability of competitively-priced wholesale electricity—today and for future generations. The ISO’s unique mission requires active stakeholder involvement, as well as a highly skilled workforce across a wide range of disciplines. One goal lies at the heart of this mission: reliability.”

“Cold weather and natural gas pipeline constraints during the winters of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 pushed average natural gas prices and wholesale power prices to new heights. The average prices in New England for both natural gas and wholesale electricity set new records during January 2014, at $24.19/MMBtu and $162.88/MWh, respectively. The second-highest average prices were set during February 2014, at $20.85/MMBtu for natural gas and $152.88/MWh for wholesale power. As noted, the power price set during March 2014 was the third-highest average, while the third-highest natural gas price was recorded just one year earlier, during February 2013, when cold weather and winter storm Nemo drove up demand and the average price rose to $18.01/MMBtu in New England.”

“Demand for natural gas is high in the winter because it is used for both home heating and power generation. Especially during very cold weather, the pipelines carrying gas into New England can become constrained, which can tend to push up prices for both natural gas and wholesale power.”
“In February, the average natural gas price of $20.85 per million British thermal units (MMBtu)*was at its second-highest average monthly price since 2003, causing the wholesale power price in New England to come in at its second-highest average.”
“February saw the continuation of an uncommon reversal of the prices of oil and natural gas. As in January, the strong demand for natural gas for heating and power generation and the pipeline constraints that limited supply pushed the average gas price higher than the average price of oil for the month. This has rarely happened since 2008, when production of gas from the Marcellus Shale deposit began to ramp up, and the natural gas price began to decline below the price of oil.”
“The average prices in both January and February 2014 eclipsed the previous price records for wholesale electricity and natural gas over the last 11 years in New England. Before this year, the previous records were recorded in October 2005 after hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused extensive damage to natural gas facilities along the Gulf Coast.”

“The average price of natural gas in New England hit a record high of $24.19 per million British thermal units (MMBtu). This was 34% higher than the previous record of $18.01/MMBtu recorded almost a year ago during February 2013, when the region was hit by cold temperatures and winter storm Nemo. The average real-time wholesale electricity price during January was $162.88 per megawatt-hour (MWh), 46% higher than the previous high of $111.64/MWh recorded during October 2005, after hurricanes damaged the natural gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico.”
“Nuclear units and natural gas-fired generators continued to produce the lion’s share of the power produced in New England in January, at 34% and 25%, respectively. But during January 2014, coal- and oil-fired generators were more often in economic merit, and therefore were dispatched more frequently than usual. Resources registered as oil units generated about 5% while coal units generated about 11% of the energy produced in New England. Dual-fuel units, which typically use natural gas as their primary fuel and oil as their secondary fuel, generated 9%. Because oil was more often in economic merit than natural gas, it’s reasonable to assume that dual-fuel units employed the less expensive fuel (oil) in January. If the dual-fuel units’ 9% output is added to the 5% output from resources registered as oil-fired, oil generated about 14% of the energy produced in New England in January.”