Top ESAI Power Blog Posts for 2023
It has been a banner year for news in the wholesale power space and our top five blog posts reflect that with heavy concentration of capacity and renewable energy news in NYISO, MISO and the PJM Interconnection.
Tom Bausemer, Chief Operating Officer
As our Chief Operating Officer, Tom Bausemer leads the ESAI Power practice, focusing on the New England, New York, and PJM and Midcontinent power markets. Tom brings over 25 years of experience in the information and commodity trading markets. Prior to joining ESAI Power, Tom spent 4 years as CRO at FastMarkets RISI, and also held senior management roles in consulting and business development at Forrester Research during his 11-year tenure.
Tom graduated from St. Bonaventure University with a BA in Journalism.
It has been a banner year for news in the wholesale power space and our top five blog posts reflect that with heavy concentration of capacity and renewable energy news in NYISO, MISO and the PJM Interconnection.
The most recent RGGI quarterly auction (Auction 62) was held on December 6, 2023. The clearing price was $14.88/ton, 7.4 percent higher than the clearing price of $13.85/ton on September 6, 2023 (see Figure 1). Auction 62 represents the third consecutive auction with increasing clearing prices, which follows three prior consecutive auctions with decreasing clearing prices.
Generation owners and their investors are placing big bets (often in the hundreds of millions of dollars) in the ISO-New England Capacity Market. As Mark Christie, FERC Commissioner, put it in March 2023: “Capacity Markets are characterized by such hopeless complexity and impenetrable opacity that they represent the example of a game that only insiders can play and win.” ESAI is now offering the opportunity to request our Pre-Auction Capacity Price Forecasts for ISO New England’s Forward Capacity Auction (FCA) over the past 7 Capacity Auctions.
Power Generator owners and their investors are placing big bets (often in the hundreds of millions of dollars) in the PJM, MISO, ISO-NE and NYISO Capacity Markets. As Mark Christie, FERC Commissioner, put it in March, 2023: “Capacity Markets are characterized by such hopeless complexity and impenetrable opacity that they represent the example of a game that only insiders can play and win.”
As the days grow shorter and temperatures drop, the New York State energy market gears up for another winter season. The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) manages the state’s energy needs, ensuring a reliable power supply during the colder months. This blog post will delve into the critical details of the NYISO Installed Capacity Market for the Winter 2023/24 season, shedding light on auction schedules, clearing price volatility, and notable changes compared to the previous winter.
The most recent RGGI quarterly auction (Auction 61) was held on September 6th. The clearing price was $13.85/ton, 8.8% higher than the clearing price of $12.73/ton on June 7, 2023. Auction 61 represents the largest increase in clearing price in percentage terms since Auction 54 in December 2021.
At the end of July, regulations were published to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The regulation, which was to take effect on August 30, 2023, requires that Virginia withdraw from the RGGI program at the end of this year. As expected, a legal challenge was filed immediately by the SELC.
Earlier this month, PJM issued an update on its new process for studying New Service Requests from generators seeking Interconnection Service Agreements (ISAs) or Wholesale Market Participant Agreements (WMPAs). This new process was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on November 29, 2022, and was implemented to address the significant backlog of generation projects with queue positions awaiting ISAs or WMPAs.
In ESAI’s latest Capacity Watch update, ESAI delivers our NYISO Capacity Market Forecast out to 2032/33 Capability Year.
RGGI quarterly Auction 60 was held on June 7, 2023. The clearing price was $12.73/ton, 1.8 percent higher than the clearing price of $12.50/ton on March 8, 2023 (see Figure 1). Auction 60 represents the first auction with a clearing price higher than the previous auction since Auction 56 in June 2022, reversing the recent trend of declining clearing prices.
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ESAI Power is a market research and consulting firm that delivers focused analysis of the wholesale power markets in the Northeast region of the US: PJM, NYISO, and ISO-NE. Since 2001, ESAI has been providing market-focused research product content and custom consulting services for Northeast power market participants including investors (banks, private equity, & hedge funds) & developers, generation owners & operators, utilities & retail electricity suppliers, regulators & RTOs, traders, and end-users & buyers.