Sunday, June 7, 2020

ISO New England -- A Follow-Up From Yesterday's Post -- June 7, 2020

Yesterday I posted these graphics from ISO New England but I had no idea what was going on. Note the high price of "spot" electricity yesterday in New England:

Observations
From Yesterday, ISO New England

ISO New England costs yesterday, link here (a dynamic link; the graphics will be different today):



So, how's all that renewable energy working out?  Note the sudden drop in nuclear energy beginning early in the a.m. in the graphic below. [I missed it; a reader pointed it out.] Natural gas still accounts for 63%:


The Denouement

A reader explained what happened yesterday:
The Millstone #3 nuclear plant (in Connecticut) seems to have abruptly gone offline [yesterday -- June 6, 2020]. 
This prompted the gas plants to rapidly mobilize to fill in the ~1,000 Megawatts that went bye bye. (The brief price spike reflected the incentive needed for a Combined Cycle Gas Plant to go full ramp ... probably 2 plants, actually). 
There have been several 'issues' with the 2 Millstone plants for several months. Could make for interesting situation during upcoming winter cold snaps.
So, let's see what the graphs look like today. Yup, "perfectly normal," just what one would predict if the reader's explanation was correct (and, of course, it was):




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