🔥This week saw 72 hours of extreme temps in the Eastern US — here’s how they impacted electricity prices in 60 seconds.
It was a clear reminder: summer risk isn’t going anywhere, and cooling for those new demand centers only gets more difficult as temperatures rise.
Prices exceeded $4,000 across all of ERCOT tonight.
While gross load is under 60 GW, net load is the highest its been in the past 30 days due to low and falling wind output and sunset.
With thermal outages over 20 GW+, the system is quite tight.
In 2024, natural gas generation on an average April day in California hit a 7-year low.
This is a significant trend reversal from what we saw from 2021 to 2023 in CAISO.
Battery storage has been a standout performer in @California_ISO this spring. With over 7 GW of discharge at the peak (+100% since 2023), batteries are reshaping the grid dynamics.
A coal power plant in Texas unexpectedly went offline tonight
Interestingly, the trip occurred not during the peak load, but later as solar power was ramping down for the day
This lead to a spike in real-time energy prices and ECRS deployments significantly relying on batteries
❄️ 3 Days of wholesale electricity prices during last week’s winter storm in 90 seconds ❄️
Grid conditions east of the Rockies were challenging throughout the week. Extreme cold weather induced new demand peaks, constrained access to gas, and contributed to record-setting days
3 days of 🌬️winter storm🌨️ real-time energy prices visualized in a minute
We picked a representative subset of market nodes across the US, colored by price to show patterns that otherwise require examining time series across thousands of individual points
Thoughts below👇
This weekend, Texas set not one, but two all-time records for solar production, surpassing the previous record by 300 MW!
With record-breaking loads expected again this week in @ERCOT_ISO, the extra production from the growth of solar in Texas should be helpful
Yesterday, both the Texas and California grids hit new all-time highs for battery discharge within hours of each other.
@ERCOT_ISO topped 4,000 MW for the first time, while @California_ISO slightly bumped up the record it set this summer.
2024 has seen a big leap in the scale of battery operations in California
Battery storage charges during hours with plentiful solar and appears to be displacing natural gas during the morning and evening peaks
This is a clear step towards the grid that CAISO has been pursuing
Breaking Down a Record-Setting Day in ERCOT
August 20th, 2024 saw records for demand, solar generation, net load, and battery discharge alongside prices near the cap; another example of how operations in the market are evolving