Northeast power, gas prices defy widespread downtrend in February

Power markets ran higher in the Northeast, diverging from the widespread year-over-year downtrend among other U.S. markets in February.

Across the U.S., average day-ahead market on-peak power prices slid 82.7% year over year to $56.71/MWh, with only New York ISO and ISO New England logging increases.

The rest saw decreases between 2.4% and 97.5%, with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc. recording the highest year-over-year decline.

Average spot natural gas prices dropped year over year to $5.943/MMBtu. New York ISO saw an increase of 29.4%, while ISO New England logged an increase of 35.2.%.

Spark spreads were mixed, with gas-fired implied heat rates — the rate at which the market cost of power equals the cost of burning natural gas to generate electricity — retreating 56.7% on average to 9,543 Btu/kWh, as declines in some regions offset the increases in others.

Meanwhile, coal-fired implied heat rates across the U.S. were down nearly 90% on average in February.

The average hourly load in February was up as much as 7.6% in ERCOT and as low as negative 3% in PJM Interconnection LLC.

Market prices and included industry data are current as of the time of publication and are subject to change. For more detailed market data, including power and natural gas index prices, as well as forwards and futures, visit our Commodities pages.

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