[Bubba_Leroy]

Let them build wind farms.

[jsanders2001]

Power / Utility companies like to create “crises”. It pays well.

[saganite]

That’s OK. They have plenty of wind and solar power to fall back on.

[thackney]

December natural gas prices spike in Boston
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=14071
DECEMBER 6, 2013

The average bidweek price of natural gas in New England for December settled at $14.52 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), well above prices in other U.S. regions, according to the IntercontinentalExchange monthly index. The bidweek price, shown in the chart above, sets in a price for natural gas over the entire month at agreed upon volumes. In the past 20 years, natural gas prices in the Northeast have only reached this level on two occasions. In 2005, hurricanes Katrina and Rita led to extremely high prices at the benchmark Henry Hub in Louisiana, and the financial crisis in 2008 led to high natural gas prices throughout the United States. This December is the first time that the bidweek price at the Algonquin hub, which serves Boston, has reached this level.

Although growth in domestic natural gas production has driven down natural gas prices throughout most of the United States in recent years, constraints on the Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline system heading into New England have contributed to short-term spikes in spot prices for natural gas in Boston during winter months. These recent trends, in turn, have been reflected in prices for the December 2013 Algonquin Citygate futures contract.

Several events that occurred in late November, as December bidweek trading was closing, contributed to the high average price, including:

-cold weather during the end of November which increased demand for natural gas for space heating and highlighted the constraints on the pipeline network;

-forecasts for below-normal temperatures in early December and;

-the announcement, on November 14, of scheduled maintenance at Canada's Deep Panuke offshore unit, a source of supply to meet New England's peak gas demand.

Flows into the northeastern United States fell below year-ago levels on the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline (M&N), which transports Canadian production from Deep Panuke and Sable Island offshore production fields to Canada and the United States. M&N also transports regasified LNG cargos offloaded from the Canaport terminal in St. John, New Brunswick in Canada to the United States. Meanwhile, flows increased on the Iroquois Pipeline and the Portland Natural Gas Transmission System (PNGTS) pipeline, both of which interconnect with pipelines owned by TransCanada that also serve consumers in Ontario and Quebec, where demand increased significantly at the same time that Deep Panuke went offline.

New England pipeline constraints limit the delivery of more natural gas to consumers in the market, making natural gas and power prices more volatile during periods of high demand—mostly in the winter. Bidweek natural gas transactions let buyers and sellers lock in prices for each day in the prompt-month, rather than purchasing daily prices in the physical spot market. For example, last December the average bidweek price for natural gas in Boston was a little over $10/MMBtu, while the average spot price during the month was about $5.80/MMBtu for all trading days, with prices at times going over $10/MMBtu. However, while the spot price in any region changes (often drastically) from one day to the next, bidweek trading provides price certainty for natural gas delivered throughout an upcoming month.

For many years, the price of natural gas has had a strong influence on the price of electric power in New England. Moreover, natural gas now accounts for more than half of the generation in New England, straining natural gas deliverability into the region, which can cause increases in natural gas prices.

Last winter, the spot price for natural gas at Algonquin Citygate peaked at $34/MMBtu, contributing to on-peak power prices that spiked to over $260 per megawatthour (MWh). Typically, spot prices for wholesale, on-peak power range between $30 and $40/MWh in New England. Near-record natural gas prices at the Algonquin trading point established during the December 2013 bidweek contributed to forward, wholesale power prices at the Massachusetts Hub for December 2013 of more than $100/MWh.

[Renegade]

Call Joe Kennedy. He and Chavez’s ghost will solve the problem.

[tomkat]

             

[who knows what evil?]

Red England? Let them freeze to death in the dark.

[thackney]

click to enlarge

[chimera]

Vermont just ran their last nuclear plant (Vermont Yankee) out of town on a rail and now they are utterly dependent on two things: importing energy from Canada and New Hampshire, and tearing down ridge lines to put in unreliable and intermittent, industrial-size windmills that have maybe a 25-30% capacity factor at best. No more “Green Mountains” for the Boys to hang out in. They are cutting their own throats in terms of energy supply and a stable economy with high paying, highly skilled jobs. Let them freeze in the dark, the stupid dopes.

[taildragger]

Ya... How is turning off that coal fired 1500 MW unit near the Cape gonna work out for you New-England?

[glorgau]

I was kind of shocked by my electricity bill last month - couple hundred bucks more than expected. for a 2 bdrm apartment!

[SC_Pete]

This was the plan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRqJeNjV8pY

[RightGeek]

Not to worry, they have green energy without all that nasty CO2.

[who knows what evil?]

I see Forbes has 'updated' their article with this headline...

'The Horrible Lack Of Planning That Could Force New England Into A Serious Energy Crisis This Winter'.

[bestintxas]

When I lived in New England, the locals 1. would not allow gas pipelines to be built(NIMBY) 2. shut down the best electrical producer in the region (nuclear plant outside Boston) 3. would never even consider allowing a coal-fired plant to be built.

What they did was leave themselves hostage to burning fuel oil to heat their homes.

A really stupid was to go as oil has much more value as a transportation fuel or making lubricants instead of burning at the boiler tip.

Congress, as is customary, always ensured the libs were taken care of by passing fuel oil credits to reduce the impact of high costs.

I say let ‘em freeze if they do not wish to do what the rest of America does.

[MasterGunner01]

Well, since the Northeast is overrun by liberals, it looks like they will find out the real cost of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Both Peter and Paul get screwed when the money runs out (or the coal and oil and there’s no natural gas to replace it). Karma sucks, y’all.