The FINANCIAL — The combination of one of the warmest winters (November-March) in decades and low spot natural gas prices contributed to low wholesale electric prices at major market locations during the winter of 2011-2012.
Warm weather kept electric system load low across the East Coast and helped dampen the need for coal-fired generation. According to EIA, natural gas generation was up significantly to take advantage of low natural gas prices. Reduced nuclear generation due to outages and reduced hydropower generation both served to moderate declining electricity prices in much of the country. On-peak, wholesale electricity prices generally ranged from $20-$50 per megawatt hour last winter, with some exceptions.
Electricity prices dropped during the winter, especially starting in January, as spot natural gas prices neared their lowest levels in the past decade.
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