2017 State of the Market Report: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Office of Enforcement Division of Energy Market Oversight

The Office of Enforcement’s Division of Energy Market Oversight (“Division”) of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) undertook a presentation to the Chairman and Commissioners titled:

2017 State of the Markets (“Presentation”)

See Docket No. AD06-3 Item No. A-3, April 19, 2018.

The Presentation constitutes the Division staff’s assessment of natural gas, electric, and other energy markets development during 2017. Examples of highlights for the report include:

Natural Gas

• Prices rose in 2017 relative to 2016 but remained comparatively low.
• Nearly 12 Bcfd in 776 miles of pipeline entered service in 2017.
• United States natural gas production rose 1% in 2017.
• Natural gas demand fell slightly from 2016.
• The U.S. became a net exporter for the first time since 1958.
• Pipeline outages, storage limitations, and cold weather led to higher natural gas prices in Southern California.
• U.S. natural gas storage inventories fell to their lowest levels since 2014.
• U.S. storage saw the largest withdrawal in history in early 2018.

Electric

• Oil-fired generation temporarily became more cost competitive than natural gas-fired generation in NYISO and ISO New England during winter “cold snap.”
• Day-ahead power prices generally increased in 2017 relative to 2016 but remained comparatively low.
• Power prices in Southern California were modestly higher in the second half of 2017 than in the first half.
• Several FERC-jurisdictional ISOs and RTOs revised offer caps in compliance with Order No. 831
• Electric storage continued to grow and regulatory initiatives for opening markets to storage began under Order No. 841.
• MISO and NYISO accepted transmission projects that use the bidding process under Order No. 1000.
• Portland General Electric joined the western UIM, with additional entities joining in 2018.

The complete report is stated to be available FERC’s website which is found at www.ferc.gov.

A copy of the slides from the Presentation can be downloaded here.