Energy
Real Energy Cost Savings
Below are the results from a sampling of reverse auctions conducted for Avalon Energy Services’ customers, including customers of varying size, over the past few months. The first graph shows the customer’s annual energy costs before competitive bidding (blue line) and after contracts were executed on accepted bids (red line). Pre-auction annual energy costs ranged…
Read MoreDay-Ahead and Real-Time Pricing During a Heat Wave
PJM operates two markets for energy, the Day-Ahead (DA) Market and the Real-Time (RT) Market. PJM’s Day-Ahead Market is a forward market in which hourly LMPs (locational marginal prices) are calculated for the next operating day based on generation offers, demand bids, and scheduled bilateral transactions. PJM’s Real-Time Market is a spot market in which…
Read MoreEnergy Prices Always Go Up (Part 4)
As discussed several times previously on this blog, there is a common perception that energy prices always go up. We have examined both natural gas prices (read hereand here) and electricity prices (read here). In this post, we look again at electricity prices–specifically, how they behaved in PJM last year. PJM zonal day-ahead load weighted…
Read MoreWhat Does a Superstorm Look Like?
In previous blog posts, we have examined how weather and other events affect electricity prices. What Does a Derecho Look Like? What Does a Warm Day Look Like? What Does an Earthquake Look Like? We continue this series by looking at how Superstorm Sandy impacted electricity prices in the PJM service area. After marching northward…
Read MoreBest Friends? – Natural Gas and Electricity Prices – An Update
By David White In a post from January 2012, the declining correlation between the price of natural gas and the price of electricity was explored (click here). At that time, the correlation between the two was declining as a result of the greater recovery in electricity prices relative to those of natural gas. The graphs…
Read MoreTime to Draw Down the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? – Part 2
It has been argued that there is too much crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and that it should be drawn down. Arguments have been made that one should “tie the amount of insurance you carry to the size of the need.” By that argument, because domestic production is up and “hit record levels…
Read MoreKeystone XL Pipeline – Where’s the Noise?
As the author notes below, on September 5, 2012, TransCanada (NYSE: TRP), the Canadian energy company hoping to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, submitted its final re-routing plan to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the U.S. State Department. This submission represents the latest step in what has become a more than…
Read MoreWhat Does a Derecho Look Like?
Late Friday, June 29, 2012 a destructive set of thunderstorms swept through the Mid-Atlantic region. With winds of up to 80 mph, the storms produced extensive damage and left several million utility customers without electricity. The National Weather Service (NWS) refers to this kind of fast-moving, long-lived, large, and violent thunderstorm complex as a “derecho.”…
Read MoreWhat does a warm day look like?
What does a warm day look like? Here are several ways of looking at one particularly warm day – June 21, 2012. The blue line on the graph below shows instantaneous electricity demand in PJM (see note 1). Electricity demand ebbed to 88,367 megawatts at 4:25 AM and then began to rise as temperatures in…
Read MoreNatural Gas Prices – Time to Hit the Panic Button?
Over the last 25 days, the daily spot price of natural gas at the Henry Hub has risen more than 30%. This is a dramatic percentage increase over a short period of time. Is it time to hit the panic button? No. In short, the percentage increase is so large because the base has gotten…
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