Alberta’s weighted average Power Pool Price for June is currently $130.43/MWh. Relative to last week’s price of $137.78/MWh, this is a decrease of $7.35/MWh or 5.3%. A further increase in hourly demand of 70MW or 0.7% did not have a direct impact on pricing this week. In fact, last week’s price averaged $108.06/MWh, which helped suppress the monthly price. Still, volatility occurred on the 23rd and the 27th, with pricing averaging $199.53/MWh and $163.25/MWh, respectively. Conversely, pricing settled to $68.11/MWh and $69.73/MWh on the 25th and 29th, respectively. Keephills 2, HR Milner, Sundance 6 and Sheerness 2 all returned to service which, coupled with elevated levels of solar generation, limited weekly volatility.
The weighted average Hourly Ontario Energy Price (HOEP) is settling at 3.9¢/kWh so far for the month of June, representing a 0.7¢/kWh or 18.1% increase over last week’s settle. The primary driver of this price hike is the increased use of demand response generation, which are typically expensive natural gas burning generators. Natural gas-burning supply increased by 29.5% (1,154MW) over the course of this past week. Baseload generation, such as nuclear and hydro, lowered their output to an average of 9,448MW (-1.4%) and 4,571MW (-1.6%), respectively. Solar and biofuel increased week-over-week output (+1.1%; 117MW, +20.5%; 14MW, respectively), whereas wind generation decreased (-3.9%, -1,127MW). With the first Global Adjustment estimated at 8.3¢/kWh, June’s total market price is settling at 12.2¢/kWh as of today.
– Mark Ljuckanov, Energy Advisor / Clara Birch, Energy Data Analyst
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