Tended

While the power industry has tended to be fairly civil so far in its criticism of FERC’s plan to mitigate prices on real-time transactions in California during emergencies, lawmakers representing the state are letting the Commission have it with both barrels.

Prices tended to flatten out in most cases Thursday, and severalsources believe that barring any drastic weather changes, themarket is due for more sideways trading for at least the next fewdays.

Except for moderate firmness for intra-Alberta and Rockiespoints Monday, the cash market tended to stay on the downward slopethat had developed Friday. However, Monday’s declines were smallerthan those for the weekend, ranging mostly between a nickel and adime.

Given modest support by a small screen gain, most cash tradingpoints tended to level off Thursday instead of continuing a slidethat many had expected would last into the weekend. Northeastcitygates constituted the rare weaker market in the East with dropsof almost a nickel as the region cooled off further from a heatwave that set power generation load records early this week.

Increases of about a dime or more were common in the cash marketMonday. The upticks tended to be larger in the West, approaching 20cents in the California market and on some Rockies pipes. There wassome fundamental validation of Western firmness as the region wasunseasonably cool, especially in the Pacific Northwest, wheretemperatures were colder than in Alberta, a Calgary source said.

Another dull day in the gas market. That’s how sources tended toview trading yet again Wednesday as flat prices prevailed, withtiny gains tending to outweigh a few tiny declines. Unlike Tuesday,when traders could point to the screen’s uptick as a motivator forcash firmness, Wednesday’s fall of about a nickel in the Henry Hubfutures contract appeared to have no impact on the cash market. Acontinuing lack of significant weather demand left sources graspingfor ways to explain the relative strength of cash prices.

Quotes for late December gas and the January bidweek tended tomove a few cents higher Wednesday. A Gulf Coast trader felt Januarycash had moved up about a nickel “in sympathy with the cold weathersweeping across most of the nation.”

Once again Tuesday the cash market tended to be stronger to theWest and weaker to the East, although neither region was a model ofconsistency. The West had a couple of flat points, while a few inthe East were flat to slightly higher.

Most cash points tended to ignore Thursday’s rebound on thefutures screen and instead focused on weak fundamentals. Many GulfCoast and Midcontinent pipes were leveling off from Wednesday’sprecipitous plunges, although several in the Gulf fell a few morecents. The losers included points in South and East Texas despite aferocious heat wave straining the state’s electric utilities.