In this list
Electric Power | Energy Transition | Natural Gas

Powerful US Northeast winter storm lifts spot gas, power prices

Energy | Electric Power

Platts Forward Curves – Gas and Power

Commodities | Electric Power | Electric Power Electricity | Energy Natural Gas | Energy Transition | Renewables | LNG | Natural Gas | Refined Products | Diesel/Gasoil | Gasoline | Shipping | Wet Freight

Market Movers Europe, March 18-22: Russian elections, Red Sea attacks dominate oil; climate ministers set COP29 priorities

Chemicals | Energy Transition | Oil & Gas

Seoul Commodity Market Insights Forum

Energy Transition | Metals | Shipping | Natural Gas | Upstream | Hydrogen | Ferrous | Steel | Carbon | Emissions

CERAWEEK: Carbon capture costs outweigh incentives, fail to attract hard-to-abate industries

Electric Power | Electricity | Energy | Energy Transition | Renewables

Platts EuGO: European Guarantees of Origin assessments

Metals | Natural Gas | Upstream | Crude Oil | Non-Ferrous | Ferrous | Steel

Metals: Saudi Arabia's new oil?

For full access to real-time updates, breaking news, analysis, pricing and data visualization subscribe today.

Subscribe Now

Powerful US Northeast winter storm lifts spot gas, power prices

Highlights

Cash Algonquin, city-gates surges to nearly $28/MMBtu

Mass Hub weekend on-peak jumped $35 to $199/MWh

ISO New England peakload forecast to reach to 19,500 MW Jan. 29

  • Author
  • Kelsey Hallahan    Kate Winston    Daryna Kotenko    Karen Rivera
  • Editor
  • Richard Rubin
  • Commodity
  • Electric Power Energy Transition Natural Gas

Spot natural gas and power prices in the Eastern third of the United States climbed in advance of expected demand spikes, driven by an approaching winter storm expected to slam into the US Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states late Jan. 28.

Not registered?

Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience.

Register Now

New England gas benchmark cash Algonquin, city-gates gained $4.40 to reach $27.95/MMBtu on Jan. 28, preliminary Platts settlement data shows. Other regional locations, Iroquois Zone 1 and Dracut, Massachusetts, soared above $30/MMBtu at preliminary settlement.

While Northeast spot gas prices saw the most dramatic increases in Jan. 28 trading for Jan. 29-31 flows, gas benchmarks across eastern US saw substantial gains.

Cash Eastern Gas, South gained 78 cents at preliminary settlement to reach $5.03/MMBtu, its highest price since early November if it holds to final settlement.

Gas pricing locations in the Southeast saw even greater increases than Appalachia, with many locations surging more than $1/MMBtu in Jan. 28 trading. Cash Henry Hub soared $1.18 to $5.63/MMBtu at preliminary settlement, while Florida Gas Zone 3gained $1.255 to $5.905/MMBtu.

The Jan. 28-30 winter storm will likely exacerbate existing tightness in gas supply and demand fundamentals. US gas production has trailed prior-month volumes so far in January, averaging 92.3 Bcf/d month to date, down from averaging 95.1 Bcf/d in December.

On the demand side, S&P Global Platts Analytics predicted that the Northeast could see gas demand surge up to 4 Bcf/d over the weekend, with three-fourths of the gains coming from residential-commercial gas demand. Some of the heating-related demands could be offset by lower power burn though, if the storm results in power outages.

The gas pricing buoyancy extended to the futures market. The NYMEX Henry Hub March contract gained 35.60 cents to settle at $4.639/MMBtu in its first day as the prompt-month contract, preliminary settlement data from CME Group shows.

Power dynamics

Power prices in the US Northeast also traded higher Jan. 28 ahead of the expected storm, with the very cold temperatures set to increase peak loads.

On the Intercontinental Exchange, Mass Hub weekend on-peak for Jan. 28-29 delivery jumped $35 on the day to trade around $199/MWh, while the off-peak contract increased nearly $30 to trade at $185/MWh.

In New York Independent System Operator, both Zone G Hudson Valley and Zone J NYC on-peak locational marginal prices for Jan. 29 delivery added about $17.50/MWh to trade near $175.75/MWh and $185.25/MWh. The corresponding off-peak contracts increased over $20 to price near $156.50/MWh and $157.75/MWh.

So far this January, prices nearly tripled year on year on continued below-average temperatures. Mass Hub on-peak averaged $151.43/MWh, while NYISO Zone G and Zone J NYC have averaged $136/MWh and $143.66/MWh, respectively.

Power prices in the PJM Interconnection saw double digit rises on ICE as the RTO placed a cold weather alert for its Western region Jan. 29 as lows were forecast to range from minus 6 Fahrenheit to 4 F.

The RTO also issued a conservative operations declaration Jan. 29 for its Mid-Atlantic and Southern regions citing the Nor'easter. The declaration allows PJM to take steps such as delaying or cancelling non-critical generation and transmission outages. PJM last declared conservative operations in December 2020.

The cold is forecast to push peakload in ISO New England to 19,500 MW on Jan. 29. In comparison, the monthly peak was 18,839 MW in January 2021 and 18,097 MW in January 2020, according to ISO-NE data. ISO-NE's all-time peak was 22,818 MW, set in January 2004.

Meanwhile, peakload NYISO is slated to hit 21,457 MW on Jan. 29. The ISO's all-time winter peak is 25,738 MW, set in January 2014.

PJM peakload is forecast to reach 121,567 MW on Jan. 29. The grid operator's all-time winter peak is 143,295, set on February 2015.

Winter storm

On Jan. 28, the US National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings and blizzard warnings for coastal New England, as well as winter weather advisories for parts of Appalachia and the Mid-Atlantic, warning of heavy snowfall, gusty winds, and below-normal temperatures.

The agency forecast that Boston would see temperatures plunge into the teens the evening of Jan. 28, remaining below-freezing until Feb. 1. The city's low temperature on Jan. 30 was forecast to drop to 9 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bracing for the storm, the governors of New York, New Jersey and Maryland issued states of emergency.

The storm could bring ten inches of snow to the New York City area and wind gusts up to 55 mph could cause power outages, according to a statement from New York Governor Kathy Hochul's office.

Officials at the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said they are constantly in touch with utilities to monitor what could be a significant number of power outages. "We will make sure enough crews are deployed to the right places to minimize potential outages," NJBPU President Joseph Fiordaliso said in a statement.