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The slide in natural gas prices continued as the weather has continued to moderate in the Northeast and Midwest. The October wholesale natural gas contract only slid $0.004 cents on the day, settling at $3.701. The storage injection for the week ending September 23rd is expected to be in the low 100’s due to power generation demand being lower. However, offsetting this is the continued power demand from the Texas region as cooling demand continues to stay high with mid 90’s or higher temperatures expected this week. The fallout from the slide in the financial markets also can potentially lower the demand from the industrial and commercial side of the economy on a longer term basis. Only time will tell, but the potential repercussions from one of the four European countries going bankrupt is highly likely given their inability to cut back on their spending.
In Kansas City, KCP&L officials were optimistic that 2011 would be the year the economy and electric meters started humming along again. But after six months some troubling figures have emerged. The utility's residential customers were using 4 percent less electricity than a year ago, when the numbers were adjusted for the weather's ups and downs. Commercial and industrial electricity use also was down, but just 1 percent. Frugal homeowners' conservation measures, such as replacing inefficient furnaces and air conditioners, had something to do with the decline. But a starker symbol of the troubled economy also played a part: A growing number of vacant, foreclosed homes are using little or no electricity. Moody's Analytics, in a separate survey, tracks the number of properties that lenders have repossessed and now own. It found that the Kansas City area ranked 25th out of the 384 metropolitan areas it surveys. In the Kansas City area there are 16.3 such properties for every 1,000 households, a rate more than double the national average and nearly three times the Missouri figure, which is 5.8 per 1,000 households. Utilities have already been crimped by the housing slowdown because of fewer new homes being built. The effect of foreclosures has been more difficult to quantify, and the number of properties standing empty often isn't tallied by utilities, or isn't broken out in reports. The effect, if any, is typically lumped under "economic conditions." Missouri Gas Energy, for example, hasn't singled out foreclosures but suspected they were becoming a factor last fall when the utility had fewer reconnections of gas service for homes that had been previously disconnected.
In the BGE service territory, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. spent $81 million to restore electricity to households and businesses that lost power in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, costs that are expected to be passed on in part to all customers, the utility reported Wednesday. Calling Irene a hurricane of "historic proportions," BGE outlined its preparation and restoration efforts in an extensive report to the Maryland Public Service Commission, the state's energy regulator, which will examine the storm responses of several utilities during hearings next month. About 756,000 of BGE's 1.2 million customers had no electricity for an average of 37 hours after Irene sideswiped Maryland last month, disrupting lives and businesses and delaying the beginning of the school year in many districts. The outages also left customers and public officials fuming about BGE's pace of restoration and its customer service phone line, which was intended to keep people informed about when repairs would be made but that many complained was inaccurate. It took eight days to restore power to all affected customers, though more than 95 percent got electricity within five days, according to the utility. Most outages were caused by downed trees and limbs falling on power lines. BGE ratepayers will likely foot some of the $81 million cleanup bill. Typically, utilities have recovered part of their storm-related costs through rate increases. BGE officials said they plan to pass on those costs in a future distribution rate increase, which would have to be approved by the PSC.
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