POWER MARKETS
WEST Over the past week, soft demand and strong renewable generation have suppressed Day Ahead prices in CAISO and Mid-C. The CPUC issued an emergency order requiring IOUs to purchase non-CAISO-sourced energy and capacity in Q3 2021 and Q3 2022 at all costs to maintain grid reliability during the summer. Consequently, prices for Q3 in Palo Verde have climbed to historical levels while also pulling up SP15, NP15, and Mid-C.
ERCOT Real-time prices have cleared mostly in the low-to-mid-$20s/MWh this week, buoyed by some triple-digit prints in key hours. The ORDC adder for March is still negligible (relative to that of February), and term prices have been flat to down a bit from last week, gas and heat rate prices exhibiting their normal oscillations. As drought conditions become more of an issue as summer approaches, particularly in the South Load Zone, summer prices could find support into April, especially as more generating units go down for seasonal maintenance.
EAST Once again, Day Ahead and Real Time prices are relatively soft, printing in the low-to-mid-$20s/MWh across the main hubs. Real Time is particularly soft in NYISO’s Hudson Valley and NYC, where the DART spread is $5/MWh. A similar pattern is showing in ISONE’s Mass Hub, where the DART spread is $3.50/MWh. However, the opposite is the case in PJM’s West Hub and NI Hub, where Real Time is around $4/MWh higher than Day Ahead on average.