Electricity prices rise in the US Midwest amid heatwave
The wholesale electricity price in the U.S. Midwest spiked to more than $500 a megawatt-hour on Tuesday as wind production?came below 'forecasts' and hot weather taxed fossil fuel plants.
Prices spiked most along the Nebraska/Iowa border, near MidAmerican Energy coal plants. MidAmerican Energy is a utility owned and operated by Berkshire Hathaway. The high prices -- about five times more than further south -- were due to heavy congestion on power lines.
Southwest Power Pool, a 'grid operator' for an area that includes 20 million people, extending from North Dakota to Louisiana reported the spikes as temperatures rose in the region above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. SPP data shows that prices in Kansas and Oklahoma were below $100 per MWh.
SPP's generation was 80% natural gas and coal-fired power plants. SPP reports that electricity generated by wind was 7%. This is a sharp drop from earlier in the morning.
The U.S. Energy Department has issued an emergency order authorizing SPP's deployment of?idle energy sources to prevent a?heatwave blackout.
The DOE's orders came after SPP warned of emergency conditions that 'are likely to continue' during peak demand periods. This highlights 'the region's vulnerability' to power plant failures, declines in the wind generation, and disruptions to imported electricity. (Reporting by Tim McLaughlin, Editing by David Gregorio).
(source: Reuters)
