Fahrenheit Follies: Hot Weather Brings

Pricing Pressure in Some Areas

Power prices in most regions of California moved steadily up throughout the week, with Southern California and Arizona border customers again paying the most.

South of Path 15 peak power traded Monday at 52.75 mills/KWh. Two days later, as peak power traded at a high of 60.75 mills/KWh, the California-Mexico Reliability Center projected electricity reserves of 7.9 percent, just above required reserves of 7 percent.

Prices fell to around 57 mills/KWh on Friday. Off-peak power traded at 27.25 mills/KWh Monday, hit 35 mills midweek, and rose to 42.75 mills/KWh on Friday.

At Palo Verde, peak power started the week trading between 53 mills and 60 mills/KWh. But as temperatures climbed to 99 degrees there on Wednesday, the price reached a high of 63.50 mills/KWh and lost only a mill by Friday. Off-peak power took a similar ascent —it traded Monday at a low of 24.75 mills and scooted up to 43 mills/KWh in Friday trading.

North of Path 15 customers are enjoying cooler weather and less costly electricity than their brethren in the southern half of the state. NP15 peak power started the week at a high of 58 mills/KWh, dropped to a low of 44 mills/KWh for Thursday deliveries, and ended the week between 54 mills and 57 mills/KWh.

Nighttime power traded between 26 mills and 41.50 mills/KWh, with the high set on Friday.

California-Oregon border daytime power went for 42 mills to 47.25 mills/KWh on Monday, gained a few mills in Tuesday trading, and finished the week at around 51 mills/KWh. Off-peak power traded Monday at 25.25 mills and climbed to 38.50 mills/KWh on Friday.

Mid-Columbia peak power traded at a low of 35 mills/KWh for Tuesday deliveries and a high of 50 mills/KWh for Monday deliveries. Off-peak power traded between 21.25 mills and 36.25mills/KWh, with the high set on Friday.

A few power-plant outages were in play this week. Units No. 2 and 3 of the La Paloma power plant were on a planned outage, keeping close to 500 MW out of circulation at times. Units No. 6 and 7 of the Moss Landing power plant were also out of service, curtailing some 1,500 MW.

The 1,157 MW Columbia Generating Station in Washington kicked back to full capacity on Wednesday after being on a refueling and maintenance outage the past few weeks. The nuclear power plant then went down the next day, after reportedly having problems with a digital system that regulates steam flow from the reactor to the turbines. It is unclear how long the plant will be down.

Flows from Northern California hydro and Midpoint-Summer Lake have limited southward flows on the California/Oregon Intertie to 4,700 MW and northward flows to 2,450 MW.

Northwest generation constraints have limited the Pacific-DC Intertie to 2,990 MW southward and 1,904 MW northward. The intertie has also been constrained by out-of-service transmission lines, such as the Round Mountain-Table Mountain No. 1 500 KV line and the 500 KV Midway-Vincent No. 3 line