After Monday’s almost universal double-digit increases, cashprices were on auto-pilot Tuesday, as they trended down from theprevious day’s results. Many traders said Monday’s run-up would bethis week’s high, pointing to moderating weather and the thecompletion of pipeline maintenance projects.

Oppressive heat caused Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., NYSEG and NewHampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen to issue power warnings in additionto the continuation of yesterday’s New England ISO warning. NYSEGsaid Monday’s peak electric demand was 28,378 MW, just 222 MW shyof the all-time New York state peak of 28,700 set on July 15, 1997.To make the electricity jam even worse, PP&L Inc. said theirSusquehanna Unit 2 nuclear plant was “unexpectedly shut down”Tuesday after a transformer problem on the non-nuclear side of theplant. Officials said the plant will be up “as soon as possible.”

Although the Northeast experienced its second day of extremeheat, price points reversed their direction from Monday’s 10 to 18cent gains. New York Citygate and Tetco M3 prices each fell 7 centsto the mid $2.60s. One Northeast trader, who heard incrementaldeals done at TCO Pool for $2.50, said he stayed away from themarket Tuesday, searching for a better handle on the situation. “Weweren’t really active [Tuesday], because we want to see whathappens. I think most of the climbing was done yesterday and thatthings will stabilize the rest of the week.”

Forecasts calling for rain to enter the Midcontinent later thisweek put a damper on the price run-up in Chicago and other Midwestpoints, a trader said. Chicago Citygate finished in the high $2.30sand NGPL Midcontinent averaged in the mid $2.20s. With no majornuclear outages and the maintenance on Northern Natural endingtomorrow as scheduled (see Daily GPI, June8), he is looking for Midcontinent prices to continue lower thenext couple of days.

Tuesday’s flat to slightly higher West Coast market shouldreceive a shake up today, one source said, thanks to the end of aNOVA system outage, which cut off 1.2 Bcf to AECO since May 31.”Its a simple supply and demand problem. If your demand staysconstant, and you get a large injection of supply, prices should godown.”

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