Q1 US wholesale power sales fall 4.2% on year due to warmer-than-normal temperatures, pandemic

Houston — Total wholesale power sales in the first quarter of 2020 came to 1.33 billion MWh, a decline of 4.2% compared with the first quarter of 2019, according to data filed with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and compiled by S&P Global Platts in its Power Sales Analysis.

The decline was due in large part to warmer-than-normal winter temperatures and the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The total reported to FERC by 577 generating companies and marketing and trading firms, came in 58 million MWh below the 1.39 billion MWh of sales reported in Q1 2019.

Of the 1.333 billion MWh of wholesale power sold in Q1, 72.6 million MWh, or roughly 5.4% of the total, came from wind power facilities.

Wholesale wind power sales rose 18% year over year in Q1, according to the data, while wholesale solar power sales, which increased 21% year on year in Q1, totaled 10.6 million MWh, or around 0.8% of the figure.

Some 17 California community choice aggregators purchased 16.4 million MWh of power in Q1, an increase of 37.8% compared with Q1 2019.

The Clean Power Alliance, a CCA formed in 2017 that serves 1 million accounts across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, bought the most power of all CCAs in Q1 — 5.6 million MWh, compared with purchases of 2.1 million MWh in Q1 2019 and 65,719 MWh in Q1 2018.

The Energy Authority was the largest supplier to CCAs, while NextEra became a significant supplier in Q1.

PJM requirements service purchases by 23 utilities came to 33 million MWh, down 16% year over year. Two companies, Exelon Generation and NextEra Energy Marketing, were the top sellers in that market

Top sellers

According to the data, the overall top wholesale power seller was Exelon Generation & Affiliates, which sold 121.6 million MWh in Q1, giving it a 9.1% share of the total market. Its sales were rose 1.9% year on year.

Second-ranked Vistra Energy, however, saw its sales decline 14.5% year on year to 78.5 million MWh from 91.9 million MWh.

Third-ranked Shell Energy North America saw its sales increase about 3 million MWh, or 4.2%, to 73.8 million MWh.

Citigroup Energy, which was ranked fourth among all wholesale power sellers, reported sales of 56.7 million MWh, which was down 19.9%, or 14.1 million MWh, from its Q1 2019 sales total of 70.8 million MWh.

Of the top 20 wholesale power sellers in Q1, half reported wholesale sales declines.

Cal-ISO, SPP buck trend

The sales declines were spread out over a number of regional markets.

According to the data, companies reported selling 5.7% less wholesale power in the PJM Interconnection footprint in Q1 than was reported sold in Q1 2019. That decline came to about 26 million MWh, from 460 million MWh sold in Q1 2019 to 434 million MWh in the most recent reporting period.

Sellers in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator market reported 209.4 million MWh of sales, a 5.9% decline versus Q1 2019, according to the data.

Reported sales in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas market fell 6.7% to 191 million MWh in Q1 from 205 million MWh in Q1 2019.

Sales reported at one of the country's top delivery points, the ERCOT North Zone, decreased 9.6% year on year to 92.9 million MWh in Q1 from 102.8 million MWh in Q1 2019.

Sales were down 10.2% in the New York Independent System Operator footprint, 3.3% in ISO New England, 2.8% in the Western Electric Coordinating Council market and by 1.1% in SERC.

The two markets that saw year-on-year increases in sales were the California Independent System Operator market and the Southwest Power Pool. Wholesale power sales increased 6.1% in the Cal-ISO footprint and by 0.8% in SPP.