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The Renewables and Wholesale Electrical energy Costs (ReWEP) visualization instrument from Berkeley Lab has been up to date with nodal electrical energy pricing and wind and photo voltaic technology information by the top of 2023: https://emp.lbl.gov/renewables-and-wholesale-electricity-prices-rewep.
ReWEP customers can discover traits in wholesale electrical energy costs and their relationship to wind and photo voltaic technology. ReWEP contains nodal pricing traits throughout areas, areas, and completely different timeframes. The instrument consists of maps, time sequence, and different interactive figures that present: (1) a common overview of how common pricing, adverse value frequency, and excessive excessive costs range over time, and (2) a abstract of how pricing patterns are associated to wind and photo voltaic technology. Interactive performance permits investigation by yr, season, time of day, and area, the place area is outlined because the Impartial System Operators (ISO) or Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO) area. ReWEP additionally accommodates costs all through a lot of the western United States from the Western Power Imbalance Market and the Western Power Imbalance Service Market.
New characteristic — information obtain
Quite a few customers have requested the choice to obtain the underlying information behind ReWEP. Although a business information settlement limits our skill to share all our enter information, now we have added the choice to obtain a lot of the aggregated information offered within the figures. To obtain the information, scroll to the underside of the ReWEP instrument and easily click on the obtain hyperlink.
Technical transient about notable traits in 2023
Together with the information replace we revealed a technical transient that summarizes chosen traits about pricing and wind and photo voltaic technology from final yr. See the total transient at: https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/rewep-2024update_tech-brief_20240429.pdf
A preview of the transient follows:
Introduction
Wholesale electrical energy costs are pushed by quite a few forces, together with a rising quantity of wind and solar energy. Market forces can embrace technology prices affected by gas costs (particularly pure gasoline), or excessive ranges of demand pushed by scorching climate (similar to air-con), or tight markets the place demand is almost equal to all accessible provide. Wind and photo voltaic can drive down costs since (1) they will have coincident manufacturing in a given space, similar to a big wind occasion throughout a area; (2) their output could be constrained by insufficient transmission connecting them to load facilities, creating localized low or adverse costs; and (3) their output can periodically be excessive relative to load, similar to solar energy output on cool spring afternoons. By monitoring common costs, episodes of very excessive costs, and the frequency of adverse costs, together with wind, photo voltaic, and general electrical energy demand, ReWEP can be utilized in a position to illustrate these dynamics.
2023 wholesale electrical energy costs declined versus 2021 and 2022
Determine 1, accessible from ReWEP, reveals the common value in 2023 was $36/MWh, down from $63/MWh in 2022. One driver of declining costs was the declining value of pure gasoline. The Power Data Administration (EIA) reported pure gasoline costs declined from $6.45 in 2022 to $2.54 in 2023 (primarily based on the annual common per Million Btu spot value on the Henry Hub). Pure gasoline costs, after all, reply to world, home, and regional elements, and excessive costs in 2021 and 2022 had been partially as a consequence of a mix of the invasion of Ukraine, sanctions on Russia, and impacts from the Covid pandemic. Excessive pure gasoline costs helped drive up wholesale electrical energy costs in 2021 and 2022, however the costs receded in 2023.
Costs diversified throughout areas
Determine 2 reveals that common annual costs in ERCOT (Texas), CAISO (California), and the broader western area had been excessive relative to different areas of the nation. Costs in SPP (the area within the middle of the nation) had been notably low, with the bottom costs in SPP positioned close to the best ranges of wind technology.
Excessive wholesale electrical energy costs in ERCOT and CAISO had been pushed by completely different phenomena. In CAISO, excessive annual costs in 2023 had been pushed largely by the excessive hourly costs in January 2023. In distinction to CAISO, excessive annual costs in ERCOT in 2023 had been pushed by excessive afternoon and early night costs in June by September (Determine 3). These excessive costs had been pushed by report excessive electrical energy demand (not less than partially related to report summer season warmth in Texas in 2023). Each CAISO and ERCOT pricing patterns are mentioned additional within the full transient.
ReWEP can be utilized to research how renewable technology and electrical energy demand interacted to have an effect on costs. These connections are mentioned within the full transient.
We recognize the funding help of the U.S. Division of Power Photo voltaic Power Applied sciences Workplace and Wind Power Applied sciences Workplace in making this work attainable.
Courtesy of Berkeley Lab’s Energy Markets & Policy.
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