Generating

Despite predictions of peak temperatures near 100 in New York City generating a $4-plus increase in Transco Zone 6-New York quotes, prices fell in most of the rest of the market Thursday as the current eastern heat wave lost much of its bullish impact.

The debate over generating revenue from the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania took a linguistic turn last week when a national tax opponent said that an impact fee working through the General Assembly is actually a tax.

The debate over generating revenue from the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania took a linguistic turn this week when a national tax opponent said that an impact fee working through the General Assembly is actually a tax.

Xcel Energy’s 550 MW Unit 1 at its Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant in Minnesota began a planned four- to six-week refueling outage late last Friday, meaning the multi-state utility holding company will be drawing on added supplies from its other generation sources or purchasing more power in the wholesale market. The refueling comes after more than 500 days of continuous operation of the unit, Xcel said. The unit is one of two at the 1,100 MW plant in Red Wing, MN. One of the reactors typically is refueled every 18 months.

Big Oil profits are generating big benefits for public pension funds, the American Petroleum Institute (API) said last week.

While nearly all of the rest of the market was seeing losses that were mostly in double digits Wednesday, an arctic cold front was generating triple-digit spikes at many of the Northeast citygates. General softness elsewhere was based chiefly on areas either already sustaining cool to moderate conditions or moving back in that direction. The previous day’s downturn of 16.4 cents by April futures provided further negative guidance for the cash market.

Southern California Edison Co. last Friday reconnected its Unit 3 at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station along the Pacific Coast in the far north end of San Diego County, marking the completion of a 10-year, $671 million replacement of the steam generators at both of the 2,200 MW nuclear plant’s two operating units. Unit 3 was taken down for planned maintenance and the generator replacement early in October last year. The other unit completed similar work in 2009 as part of an overall effort that the utility estimated will save its customers more than $1 billion over the remaining licensing period for the plant that runs through 2022.

It might not set records like the one in New England during mid-January, but another major winter storm spreading into most market areas was generating flat to as much as about 95 cents higher prices at most non-Northeast locations Tuesday. The previous day’s futures gain of 9.7 cents gave a little extra support to cash.

Natural Gas producers may be able to upload their data on fluids used in the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in a day or two to www.hydraulicfracturingdisclosure.org, provided that they have created a login, said Mike Nickolaus, special projects director for the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC).