NYC Power Prices Fall Due To Continued Pwr Outages

NEW YORK - -- Daily power prices in New York City Thursday fell as large blocks of lower Manhattan remained without power following Tuesday's terrorist attacks. It was unclear by how much the outage reduced demand for electricity in this area, but sources said the downtown area is likely the largest load pocket in Manhattan. Consolidated Edison Inc, which delivers electricity to New York City, wasn't available to provide more information due to problems with its telephone lines.

New York City (J) traded near $38-$39/MWh, down $3 from the previous day. Daily prices in the city are expected to remain low until Con Edison can restore power to the bulk of lower Manhattan, a trader said. Prices throughout the Northeast could increase with fuel prices but prices spikes in New York City seem unlikely, the trader added.

Con Edison said major transmission cables and two substations in lower Manhattan were permanently damaged in Tuesday's attacks. The utility said Tuesday it wasn't able to estimate how long it would take to restore power to the blackened areas of downtown.

Daily power prices also fell throughout the rest of the state and the entire Northeast on forecasts calling for significantly reduced demand and cool temperatures.

West New York (A) traded at $31.50/MWh, a $4 decrease from the previous day. Deals in East New York (G) were done at $37.75/MWh, down $2.50 from Wednesday.

PJM fell $2-$2.50 to $25.75-$26.25/MWh.

Deals in Nepool slid 50-75 cents to $39-$40/MWh.

"Today is the first day we've seen a little activity," following Tuesday's terrorist attacks, a trader said. Traders said they were using electronic brokerage services to conduct deals.

A trader expressed surprise that New England prices didn't decrease farther as a result of Friday's forecast.

Boston was expected to see a high temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit Friday, down 13 degrees from Thursday's projected high. The high temperature in New York City was forecast to be 62 degrees Friday, a 14 degree decrease from the previous day. Washington was expected to register a high of 68 Friday, down 11 degrees. On-Peak/MWh 1 Day Previous PJM West $25.75-$26.25 $28.25 Nepool $38.50-$39.25 $39.00-$40.00 W New York (A) $31.50 $35.50 E New York (G) $37.75 $40.00 New York City (J) $38.00-$39.00 $41.00-$42.00

Grid operator PJM Interconnection LLC recently forecast a peak demand of 32,500 MW for Friday, down 5,900 MW from Thursday's projected peak. Looking ahead, PJM predicted a peak load of 32,500 MW for Monday.

ISO New England saw peak loads of 16,400 MW for Friday, down 1,050 MW from the recent projection for Thursday. Looking ahead, the ISO also forecast a peak load of 16,400 MW for Monday.

ISO New England said 21% of the region's capacity was out of service Thursday.