PJM kept its cool last week as power markets in the midcontinent were struggling under the strain of record-setting energy demand due to a historic cold spell. Unlike what happened in Texas, grid reliability was maintained, and spot electricity prices remained under control. In PJM, the electricity futures market continues to trade sideways and largely rangebound between $26-30/MWh in the wholesale market across the entire region. Clearly, it will take more than wild weather to materially move this market.

Valentine’s Day may warm our hearts, but it often coincides with some of the coldest weather of the winter, and this year was no exception. Last week, Valentine’s Day weekend was followed by Presidents Day, which means that gas traders must make their purchases for the long weekend on Friday to cover the next four days. The weather forecast on that Friday pointed to record cold temperatures across most of the midcontinent and extending into south Texas. The expectation of cold temperatures and high heating demand over the long holiday weekend started to produce volatility in natural gas markets as early as Friday afternoon.

Conservation Needed

To all businesses and homes in Texas fortunate enough to still have power, please reduce electricity consumption throughout the rest of Monday and Tuesday. The Texas electric grid is experiencing unprecedented strain, and many have been without power since early Monday morning. You can help by reducing the setpoint on your thermostats, turning off and unplugging non-essential lights and appliances, closing shades and blinds, and avoiding use of large appliances (ovens, washing machines, etc).    

The entire mid-continent is bracing for an historic cold weather event over the next several days. In Texas, energy regulators, delivery utilities, and market participants are making advanced plans to keep the population safe and warm throughout this event. What's in store is not only an energy market issue but also a public safety concern as well. It goes without saying that electric power is a critical service in our modern lives and we should all take precautions against extended power outages over the next few days.

In his 2021 State of the State address on January 11th, Governor Andrew Cuomo declared the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy as an opportunity for New York to stimulate the economy in the post-COVID world. Cuomo highlighted four components that need to be addressed simultaneously to seize the moment:

The price for this winter’s natural gas has seen its fair share of volatility over the past 12 months. Coming out of last winter’s abnormally warm weather, prices for the 2021 calendar year strip saw its all-time low of $2.27 per MMBtu on Friday, March 6, 2020. This was the last trading session before the Saudi Arabia and Russia feud over cutting crude supplies at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Since last March, natural gas prices saw two sustained bull markets where prices rallied more than 50¢, from April through May, and then again from late July through the end of October. These two rallies are highlighted in Figure 1.

On January 8^th, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) approved a new program that will allow PSE&G to spend $780M over the next four years to install smart meters in homes and businesses throughout its territory. This move is intended to create a more integrated network between customers and the electricity grid that will provide more transparency to price signals and ultimately help homeowners and businesses to make more informed energy decisions. These upgraded and improved meters will also provide near real-time outage detection and help customers to be more aware of their energy consumption.

It may have taken almost four years, but the price for summer, on-peak power in Texas has finally returned to levels that were observed prior to the announced retirement of four Luminant power plants during the fall of 2017. With strong growth in both wind and solar generation in various stages of completion, the power market in Texas appears to be back to where it was before the anticipated loss of generating assets, which kicked off multiple years of price volatility. Figure 1 shows the wholesale electricity price for each of the next five summers (2021 – 2025) as they’ve traded from Sep 2017 to the present.

Global LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) prices, similar to global crude prices, have struggled this year. The price of West Texas Intermediate Crude (crude oil’s benchmark index) bottomed out at -$37 per barrel on April 20^th, rebounded by June to approximately $30, and then recovered to about $40 per barrel for most of the summer. While LNG’s Japan Korea Marker (JKM, a major LNG index) significantly decreased, it did not go into negative territory like crude oil. However, unlike crude oil, the JKM index had a much longer sustained low, and when including the cost to liquify the natural gas, the price for LNG was essentially negative.

Next summer’s peak demand in Texas is forecasted to grow by about 3% compared to the summers of 2019 and 2020. The good news is that new generation is being added at a faster rate, which will create a higher Reserve Margin where the amount of electricity supply exceeds the forecasted demand. Most of this new generation is coming from renewable power projects across Texas. Once it is operational, the Samson Solar project, a 1,310 MW solar array in Northeast Texas, will become the largest solar farm in the US.