Skip to main content

NEI's Energy Markets Report - August 20 - 24, 2007

By
Here's a summary of what went on in the energy markets last week:
Electricity peak prices all decreased by more than $5/MWh. Except for the Palo Verde hub, the current week’s averages are all below the last four week’s average. If last year’s seasonal trends repeat this year, electricity prices could be expected to decline and remain below the 52 week average through September and October (see pages 1 and 3).

Gas prices at the Henry Hub fell $0.67 to $6.25/MMBtu (see pages 1 and 3). Natural gas spot and futures prices eased as Hurricane Dean did not have a significant impact on U.S. production in the Gulf of Mexico. Moderate temperatures contributed to the decline, according to EIA.

NYMEX natural gas futures registered steep declines last week, including the largest single-day movements in nearly 20 months. A 97-cent decline for the September 2007 contract on Monday was the largest decline since the January 2006 contract lost $1.26 per MMBtu on December 27, 2005. The decrease occurred as it became clear that Hurricane Dean would not have an impact on Gulf production, according to EIA (see page 2).

The estimated U.S. nuclear plant availability factor averaged 97% for the week. St. Lucie 2 was manually tripped due to a leak in the reactor coolant system. FitzPatrick was offline to repair a safety relief valve located on the main steam line outside of the reactor vessel. Braidwood 2 was down after a storm stopped two pumps which provide water to cool the plant’s condenser (see pages 2 and 4).

For the last four weeks, spark spreads between the Entergy and Henry hubs have averaged the highest spread over the past year. This was due to ample natural gas inventories and high electricity demand in the South region (see pages 1 and 3).
For the report click here. It is also located on NEI's Financial Center webpage.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fluor Invests in NuScale

By
You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap...
1 comment
Read more

Wednesday Update

By
From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nuclear Utility Moves Up in Credit Ratings, Bank is "Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy"

By
Some positive signs that nuclear utilities can continue to receive positive ratings even while they finance new nuclear plants for the first time in decades: Wells Fargo upgrades SCANA to Outperform from Market Perform Wells analyst says, "YTD, SCG shares have underperformed the Regulated Electrics (total return +2% vs. +9%). Shares trade at 11.3X our 10E EPS, a modest discount to the peer group median of 11.8X. We view the valuation as attractive given a comparatively constructive regulatory environment and potential for above-average long-term EPS growth prospects ... Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy. SCG plans to participate in the development of two regulated nuclear units at a cost of $6.3B, raising legitimate concerns regarding financing and construction. We have carefully considered the risks and are comfortable with SCG’s strategy based on a highly constructive political & regulatory environment, manageable financing needs stretched out over 10 years, strong partners...
Post a Comment
Read more