Electricity Prices Surge Across U.S. Northeast as Cold Sets In

(Bloomberg) -- Electricity prices are surging on power grids from Virginia to Maine as homeowners cranked up heaters to combat freezing temperatures.

New York City’s spot price briefly spiked to $1,280.60 per megawatt-hour at 11 a.m. before settling between $200 and $300, according to the grid operator’s website. New England prices tripled in the late morning from a day earlier, touching $286. Prices in New Jersey and Philadelphia topped $100. Prices in the region this time of year typically range between $40 and $70 per megawatt-hour.

Demand is coming in above the grid operators’ forecasts after a no’easter swept into the region after blanketing Washington with snow for a second time this week. New England is especially vulnerable to price spikes because it’s at the end of the natural gas pipeline and has to rely on costly imports. Natural gas is the main fuel for power plants.

Power prices across the Midwest are also popping to about $100 a megawatt-hour on the central U.S. grid run by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, known as MISO. That’s three times more expensive than prices on the grid’s Gulf Coast region.

“The entire MISO footprint is experiencing very cold temperatures this morning, which led to a higher-than-expected load,” spokesman Brandon Morris said in an email.

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