Play Me a Songs Mr. Generator Man – Impact of 2013 California Power Market on Natural Gas
Early in 2012, soon after Japan’s Fukushima disaster, two California nuclear power plants called SONGS 2 and SONGS 3 (stands for San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station) shut down for the foreseeable future. This pulled roughly 2,200 MW of base load generation out of the Southern California supply stack. The California System Operator (CAISO) scrambled for several weeks to bring replacement power into the system, and succeeded admirably. The grid held together and weathered last year’s hot summer. Now as the summer of 2013 starts to come into focus, there are lots of questions about the SONGS units –which are still off line – and what California’s overall power generation load will mean for natural gas demand and prices. Today we survey the measures that made things work last year and examine the most likely market developments expected for Summer 2013.
