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Saturday, February 6, 2021

ISO New England And Dual-Fuel Units -- February 6, 2021

ISO New England.     ISONY.      ISO California.   ISO Price California.     ISO Australia.  

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A reader asked a very interesting question about ISO NE and dual-fuel units. In the process of that discussion, the reader found an answer to his own question. 

Link here. Flashback: from January 2, 2018. Archived.

New Yorkers and New Englanders are cranking up their thermostats to stay warm amid an extreme cold snap, but New England's grid overseer and its generators are finding that dual fuel generators are burning through not only needed wintertime oil supplies but also emissions allowances for the rest of the year.

ISO New England spokesperson Marcia Blomberg said the regional power system is operating under normal conditions but the extreme cold weather is increasing demand for natural gas for heating, creating pipeline constraints, driving up natural gas prices and causing dual-fuel generators to switch fuels. As a consequence, oil- and coal-fired power plants are generating much more power than usual and wholesale power prices have soared.

As of 10:30 a.m. on January 2, 2018, 34% of New England's electricity was being supplied by oil-fired generation (which over a given year supplies less than 1% of the region's generation), followed by natural gas at 25%, nuclear at 23%, renewables at 9%, coal at 6% and hydro at 4%.

Of the renewable generation, 62% of it was supplied by greenhouse gas-emitting wood-, refuse- and landfill gas-fired generation, with wind supplying 38% and solar less than 1%.

According to data from SNL Energy, ISO-NE's internal hub clocked a day-ahead power price of $210/MWh at peak on Jan. 2, up from a December 22, 2017, peak of just $66.25/MWh.

Much, much more at the link.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting data from New England ISO. Seems that price drops when load drops below cleared power purchase. So I would guess that the high cost power is above the cleared power.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, one can "learn" a lot from those graphs looking at them during coldest part of the winter and hottest part of the summer.

      It appears, everything is "fine" up to 7.5k MW. Above 7.5kMW natural gas has maxed out; and one will see hydro from Canada start to increase. Depending on how much hydro is needed one will then see oil and coal start to come in to play.

      Renewable is fairly straight line: starts off the day at highest levels, then tens to slowly taper off. Nuclear, of course, is flat-lined from the beginning to the end every day.

      Coal maxes out.

      Natural gas and hydro have most flexibility but natural gas does max out and when they go to hydro, it gets very, very expensive.

      Late this Sunday afternoon, starting about 4:00 p.m. additional hydro was needed and rates spiked to $160 and then $200 before dropping back a bit. It will be interesting to follow the demand on a cold, cold evening when everyone is home watching the Super Bowl.

      But, yes, one can learn a lot by following the ISO NE one high demand days. I find it fascinating.

      Most fascinating will be to look at the curves ten years ago and ten years in the future.

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