It Feels Like Winter in the Northeast and Power Prices Show It

(Bloomberg) -- Winter weather returned to the Eastern U.S. Friday morning, driving up electricity prices as homes and businesses cranked on the heat.

As temperatures in Philadelphia hovered in the mid-40s, prices on the grid stretching from the Mid-Atlantic to the Midwest more than doubled to $65.34 a megawatt-hour at 11:12 a.m. Eastern Time. That’s the highest since January, according to Genscape data.

Demand for power came in stronger than the grid operator, PJM Interconnection LLC, expected -- and that can significantly drive up prices during spring because many power plants go down for maintenance to gear up for the summer peak.

The cold snap, however, is apt to be short lived, Jim Rouiller, chief meteorologist at Energy Weather Group, said in an interview. It will be unseasonably mild from Philadelphia to Chicago on Sunday and Monday, he said.

PJM forecasts that demand will peak at just 78.5 gigawatts on Saturday, down from 90.6 gigawatts on Friday.

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