Welcome to Grid Brief! Today we’re looking at power generation, demand, prices, and more in America’s power markets.

What’s Keeping the Lights On?

Let’s start with a snapshot of generation nation-wide:

Total generation has ebbed since Monday, with natural gas and nuclear maintaining their positions in the top two, while wind swapped third with coal.

And here’s a map to orient you as we move through the market areas:

ISO-NE

New England saw gas ramp up and down as total generation fluctuated throughout the week.

Divergences between day-ahead and real-time prices in ISO-NE broke upwards and downwards, sending prices into the negative for sustained blocks of time.

PJM

As usual, natural gas and nuclear were the top two generators in America’s largest power market, where total generation and demand ebbed over the week.

PJM saw several price spikes, especially in Ohio and Dominion, but its Chicago hub sank into the negatives for much of the week.

Long interconnection queues are strangling Illinois’s renewables buildout in PJM. A recent piece from the Chicago Tribune reports that major environmental organizations and renewable industry trade groups are pouring criticism on PJM’s conservative approach to integrating intermittent resources like wind and solar.

Subscribe to Premium Subscription to read the rest.