Texas Power Prices Surge 700% on a Chilly Morning in Dallas

(Bloomberg) -- A chilly morning in Dallas combined with calm winds and idle power plants sent wholesale electricity prices in Texas to the highest level in more than a year.

Spot electricity at a northern hub in Texas surged about 700 percent to average $383.71 a megawatt-hour for the hour ended 8 a.m. local time, the most since January 2018, according to Genscape. It came as Dallas temperatures dipped to 42 degrees Fahrenheit (6 Celsius) early Monday. At the same time, power plants representing about 37 percent of the state’s generating capacity were shut for spring maintenance, according to Jeffrey Thibodeau, Genscape’s regional director for Texas.

Wind was little help, as with output from turbine farms fell to about 1.6 gigawatts for that period, compared with around 10 gigawatts most days last week, Thibodeau said.

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.