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The October wholesale natural gas contract added another in a long line of quiet days yesterday. The natural gas market dipped slightly in the morning and then spent the rest of the day slowly climbing back up and settling close to the high of the day, higher by $0.079 at $3.909. The 6 to 15 day forecast is calling for normal temperatures for this time of year for the eastern half of the country so one could make the argument that yesterday’s price action was caused by the realization that the October contract is well into the Fall and natural gas purchased for that time frame will be used when the colder weather moves in and heating demand is on the rise. Another theory working around the market yesterday was that because we are in the last week of the summer and heading into a holiday weekend, there is less interest than normal in this market and therefore it is easier to push the price one way or the other. Early estimates for Thursday’s storage injection number are between builds of 56 bcf and 65 bcf at this time. On the tropical front, a tropical wave is currently located over the western Caribbean, moving northwest towards the southern Gulf of Mexico. By later this week/weekend, the tropical wave could slowly form into a tropical storm off the Texas coast and bring much needed rains into the Houston/Dallas region and thus bring down temperatures and cooling demand.
For the region's electrical utilities, Hurricane Irene is a storm for the record books. Public Service Electric & Gas Co., New Jersey's largest utility, says the weekend storm ranks as its worst ever, with 700,000 customers who lost electrical service. That surpasses the 610,000 customers who went dark during a nor'easter that slammed the Garden State in March 2010. Peco Energy Co., the Philadelphia utility, said that 500,000 customers lost power; ranking Irene among its five worst storms ever. Both utilities, which had summoned reinforcement repair crews from as far as Florida and Missouri ahead of the storm, said service, had been restored to about two-thirds of the customers by Monday. The utilities said most customers would be reconnected by Wednesday, little solace to those whose refrigerators have become microbial hothouses of spoiled food (sound familiar). The U.S. Department of Energy estimated at least six million customers lost power as Hurricane Irene bullied its way north from North Carolina to Maine. Several power plants shut down during the storm, PJM said, but the system has sufficient generation capacity to meet demand. Although Irene did not pack as much of a punch as feared, its wide swath of high winds and torrential rains easily uprooted thousands of trees from soil saturated by several weeks of rain before the hurricane arrived.
On the home front, Constellation Energy announced it is taking applications for its E2: Energy to Educate Grants program ("E2 Grants") which provide funding for projects that enhance student understanding of the science and technology needed to address energy issues. Grant awards will be up to $25,000 for projects involving students in grades six through 12 and up to $50,000 for projects at two and four-year colleges. Funds will be provided by the Constellation Energy Foundation. The E2 Grants program targets projects that advance energy innovation and build on student knowledge and application of science, technology, engineering and math through hands-on demonstration. The projects must align with at least one of three focus areas: the basic science and engineering needed to address energy challenges; new energy technologies entering the marketplace; and the expanding role of information technology in how we efficiently manage and use energy. The application deadline is Oct. 1. "The E2 Grants assist in preparing students to address one of their generation's greatest challenges” making the transition to a more secure, efficient and low-emissions energy system to power both our buildings and vehicles," said Mayo A. Shattuck III, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Constellation Energy. "Achieving this outcome is essential to the nation's economic success and to the health of the communities in which we live and work.
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