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Energy Markets Report (November 9 - 13, 2009)
Highlights
- Electricity peak prices at all six hubs decreased $3.24-$12.40/MWh. “Free-falling spot gas played hard into power markets through most of the nation. The tumbling gas prices, which ran as much as $1 lower at several locations, acted like a lead weight on power prices already diminished by soft fall loads as a result of generally mild conditions prevailing across much of the nation” (SNL Energy, pages 1 and 3).
- Estimated US nuclear fleet availability remained at 75 percent last week. One unit shut down for refueling and one unit shut down for maintenance. Eight units came back online from either refueling or maintenance outages (pages 2 and 4).
- Gas at the Henry Hub fell $0.75 to $3.49/MMBtu for the week. The gas rig count fell by six to 728. On Friday, 11/13, gas prices dropped to $2.51/MMBtu. “Low demand expectations, both on the weekend day’s inclusion and with mild weather continuing in key heat consuming markets, kept natural gas under pressure in the week’s closing session” (SNL Energy). “Working gas in underground storage as of Friday, November 6, is estimated to have been 3,813 billion cubic feet, a new record high which is 12 percent above the 5-year (2004-2008) average” (Energy Information Administration, pages 1 and 3).
- During October 2009, the following capacity came online: 1,900 megawatts of gas, 1,100 MW of wind, 200 MW of coal, and 100 MW of other renewables. As of November 19, there were 38,000 MW of capacity under construction to come online by 2013 (down from 42,000 MW last month). Of this amount under construction, 41% was gas, 38% was coal, 16% was wind, 3% was nuclear, and 3% was other renewables (see page 5).
- Uranium spot prices fell for the fourth week in a row to $43.50-$44/lb U3O8. An external event that occurred last week could have the potential for significant impact on the spot uranium market. “Secretary Steven Chu announced that the US Department of Energy found the transfer of uranium to fund accelerated cleanup activities at the Portsmouth site in Piketon, Ohio will have no adverse material impact” (TradeTech). “The [DOE] analysis concludes that the potential effect of DOE’s transfer of uranium would be no more than a $1.45 per pound reduction in price … equivalent to 2.2 percent of the term price and 3.1 percent of the spot market price” (UxConsulting, see pages 1 and 3).
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