Energy Related Thoughts

While cleaning up my old blogs, I came across my blog from August 29, 2011 where I asked if this was the time to buy. We have records going back for years showing how September typically offers the lowest prices in natural gas. Easy to understand why - the hot summer is behind us and the winter is an unknown.

Who would have known that this winter was going to be so unseasonably warm across the country! Looking back at the NYMEX last day settle for September...

On December 9, 2011, the American Public Power Association (APPA) filed comments to FERC urging them to work with the EPA to provide the electric power industry with sufficient time to comply with the rules set out in CSAPR. This filing was a follow-up to a November 30th FERC reliability technical conference on the impacts of various EPA regulations on coal-fired capacity in the United States. The APPA believes the EPA should grant the electric power sector, particularly public power utilities, additional compliance time beyond the standard three years provided under the Clean Air Act...

What’s on the horizon that can and will affect our energy resources? Once again, we must turn our attention to China. Let’s face it – one fifth of the world’s population lives in China! Since it has become industrialized it is consuming more energy than ever before! Consider the following facts:

• By 2025, China will build TEN New York-sized cities!
• By 2030, China will add more new city-dwellers than the entire U.S. population.
  
• China already consumes twice as much steel as the U.S., Europe and Japan combined.
  
• China has more than 50 million vehicles on the road...

We blog to provide you the energy data and market intelligence that helps you make your energy procurement decisions. This week, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) launched a new web-based report called the Electricity Monthly Update, replacing the Monthly Flash Estimates for Electric Power Data. This new product introduces a feature story, interactive graphics, a new presentation flow, and new electricity industry data sources...

Do competitive markets work? It seems like we need to justify the deregulation of energy markets everyday! If you ask our clients, who have been seeing year over year savings due to energy deregulation throughout North America, the answer would have to be an outstanding YES!

Leila Vespoli, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of FirstEnergy Corp., recently spoke to the Ohio House of Representatives Public Utilities Committee on this issue...

*Notice - As of 12/30/11, the U.S. Court of Appeals has delayed implementation of the CSAPR.

Effective January 2012, the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) will require 27 states, mostly in the eastern half of the United States, to significantly reduce emissions from coal fired plants. The purpose of this rule is to help states reduce ground level ozone and other pollutants, replacing the EPA's 2005 Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). The first restrictions go into effect on January 1, 2012, with another wave of restrictions kicking in on May 1, 2012.

The question we ask is, "How will CSAPR affect energy prices"? Well, regions with heavy coal based generation could see their power prices increase...

If you are in a deregulated state (click here for map of deregulated states) and consume an above average volume of energy, you HAVE BEEN CALLED by either a third party supplier or broker. In fact, you have probably been called MANY TIMES, maybe even by us! That is because deregulation has opened up a new industry geared at helping consumers understand the complexity of the market and make the right decisions...

I just read an article on Pennlive.com called "The Darker Side of Energy Deregulation", in which the author brings out a very valid point regarding the transparency in disclosing the true costs services.

The author, who I assume to be a Pennsylvania resident, tells the story about his own experience of opening his electric bill, only to discover that his "discount carrier" had charged him more than twice the going rate for the month of June 2011...

Reverse auctions are seen as providing a new tool for companies that will help them shave expenses and better document their procurement transactions. If I were a procurement professional, I'm sure I would like reverse auctions because:

• It cuts time and costs of both the product and the process (savings 5 to 15%)
• Companies focus on lowest cost and best value supply relationships; eliminates bias and opens bidding to new suppliers
• Transaction information is standardized, organized, time-stamped and trackable; provides an ability to confirm pricing and leverage previous agreements...

I just read a good article today in the July/August 2011 edition of EnergyBiz, headlined "Fast and Slow but Forward", regarding the direction of electricity deregulation.  The article addresses the good, the bad and the ugly issues that have faced deregulated markets over the past 10 years.  In short, there are no new deregulatory efforts going on at the present time. This is, in part, due to the bad press regarding retail energy prices increasing...

The last time we saw the stock market take a dive like we saw on Monday, August 8th was in October of 2008. Sometimes referred to as the Crash of 2008, it set a record weekly loss of 1,874 points or 18.1% during the week of October 6th.

So we began thinking - how would a downturn in August affect the price of natural gas? Looking back at the crashes of 1929, 1987 and 2008, they share one common element...

Energy is a complex purchase.  It's not like buying copy paper.  This blog is about the top three mistakes we see companies make when purchasing energy such as natural gas and electricity.

The question has been raised many times lately about how the economy especially the latest news about raising the debt ceiling can have on energy prices. This blog will attempt to answer that question as it relates to natural gas and electricity pricing.

Since natural gas prices affect the price of electricity let’s start there. The largest pricing component of natural gas is set by market forces which is the buying and selling of the commodity by market players, based on supply and demand...

The energy market is a fast paced, ever changing medium. As an example, just look at the volatility in the natural gas market over the past few years!

The red line shows the ebb and flows of the ever changing NYMEX Natural Gas futures, while the blue line shows the changes in the S&P 500...

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