NYC Spot Prices Spiked To $1,280 / MWh -- Road To New England -- ISO NE -- Winter Storm -- Early Afternoon -- January 7, 2022

Updates

Later, 4:32 p.m. CT: link to Reuters. Relatively minor winter storm hits New England; relatively major impact.

Later, 4:24 p.m. CT: thank goodness for expensive Canadian hydroelectricity and CO2 emitting oil from Russia, Trinidad and Tobago:
 

Original Post

Bloomberg paywall:
 

Link here. Graphics:

Boston burning oil and coal to keep the lights on. 

From a reader about an hour ago. I couldn't post it in "real-time": I was out and about. From the reader:

Quick check of ISO site shows $244/Mw spot price, over 1,000 Mw generated from oil, and coal production at ~450 Mw. 

Nuke output is dropping from usual ~3,350 Mw down to <3,300 over past 3 hours. 

There is an FSRU - Floating Storage and Regasification Unit) - docked at the offshore Northeast Gateway Terminal feeding natgas into the system.

The drop in nuclear output could be troubling as, historically, any deviation is normally  accompanied by operational 'issues'. 

Coal output indicates 100% utilization from 2 remaining coal plants. Oil output indicates 100% utilization from Yarmouth oil burner (~600 Mw capacity) and oil burning from dual-fuel gas plants.

Entirety of next week looks to be very cold with Monday through Wednesdsy especially so. 

I will be more closely following these events as 'something' big may be a'brewin'.

A follow-up from the reader:

Quick follow up  ... 

Nuke output has reversed and is starting to increase. 

The drop may have been related to transmission issues (wires down) and not the plant itself  as there is a big storm currently in that area. 

It will be interesting to see how well the oil stocks hold up in the coming days if high a high consumption rate continues.

They're noticing it over on twitter also, suggesting that electricity prices are surging from Virginia north to Maine.