New York, May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Wholesale power prices fell in parts of the U.S. Northeast as increased imports from Canada and production from nuclear plants returning to service boosted supplies.
"There's lots of power moving down from Canada now," said Richard Zimbone, senior analyst with Boston-based EnvaPower Inc., which provides price forecasts for power traders.
About 1,550 megawatts of imports are scheduled for today, compared with 650 megawatts on Friday, according to ISO-New England, the region's grid operator. One megawatt can power 800 typical U.S. homes.
Power for delivery tomorrow at the New England Power Pool fell $7.25, or 12 percent, to $51 a megawatt-hour at 9:31 a.m. local time, according to Bloomberg data.
In New York, Constellation Energy Group Inc.'s 614-megawatt Nine Mile Point 1 nuclear plant in Lycoming, New York, near Syracuse, was operating at 90 percent capacity this morning after completing feedwater pump repairs, said spokesman Robert Burtch.
At full capacity, the plant can supply power to about 500,000 homes.
Power for delivery tomorrow in Zone G, which includes areas north of New York City, fell for the first time in five sessions, by $4.15, or 7.2 percent, to $53.88 a megawatt-hour. Western New York's Zone A declined $1.13 to $47.
Power for delivery tomorrow at PJM Interconnection, the network serving most of the Northeast, rose for a seventh consecutive session, by 81 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $51.50 a megawatt-hour.
June PJM futures were up for a fourth trading day, by $1.35, or 2.4 percent, to $58 a megawatt-hour on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:02 p.m. local time.
FirstEnergy Corp.'s 821-megawatt Beaver Valley-1 nuclear plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, increased production to 88 percent, from 45 percent Friday, following completion of a refueling outage, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
The increase adds 353 megawatts to the market, or enough power to supply about 300,000 typical homes.
However, I sure don't see any new ones coming on line any time soon, and that, my FRiend is a crying shame. The ever increasing power production from relatively non-polluting gas fired turbines accounts for better than 30% of total US power output, I think. For better or worse, as long as the supply/demand natural gas problem exists, no other power source can severely mitigate any huge price increases in NG. Fuel oil can be switched to in the NE, but only in the NE.