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The July natural gas wholesale contract fell to a two- week low on speculation that below-normal temperatures in the U.S. Northeast will reduce demand for the power-plant fuel yesterday. The July contract dropped for a second day as meteorologists said the weather will be cooler than normal in the Northeast through June 18. At the peak, the July natural gas contract gained 12 percent since May 19 as temperatures broke records in cities such as Baltimore, Maryland. However, yesterday, the July natural gas contract continued to fall 6.5 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $4.581 per million British thermal units, the lowest settlement price since May 27. New York will have a normal high temperature of 79 degrees Fahrenheit tomorrow, according to weather internet sites while it had a high of 95 degrees on June 9, which happened to be 17 degrees above normal (I was there during this heatwave, believe me, you don’t want to be in a city that is not used to hot weather, AC service doesn’t seem to be widely available).
On the efficiency front this morning, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is commending the Obama Administration's smart grid policy recommendation that consumers get better access to their own energy information. Last month, CEA released a whitepaper, "Unlocking the Potential of the Smart Grid, “A Regulatory Framework for the Consumer Domain of Smart Grid," recommending a similar policy approach to improve the way Americans understand and manage energy consumption. The whitepaper, which was a product of CEA's Smart Grid Working Group, through which CEA member companies are advancing the deployment of smart grid systems across the country, called for pricing programs and real-time consumption and pricing information to reduce energy usage and improve consumer awareness of consumption practices. Yesterday, the Obama Administration announced new Department of Energy commitments to improve consumers' access to their own energy information and the creation of Grid 21 (sounds like a sci-fi movie), a private sector initiative to also improve energy information while ensuring the proper privacy safeguards. Currently, energy management systems enable consumers to control their home air conditioning and heating units through a programmable display. In the future, a smart grid would enable consumers to adjust home cooling and heating systems with a smartphone, run their dishwashers at times of low energy costs (you could do housework while away from the home), or control home appliances remotely, among other applications.
In the state of Connecticut this morning, not only is Connecticut consumers and businesses dealing with some of the highest energy costs in the nation as we wrote about on Monday morning, but now CL&P is indicating that they intend to accelerate work to improve its aging infrastructure and eventually build a new electrical substation in Greenwich following a string of weather-related failures last week that left thousands of homes in the dark. Representatives from the utility spoke during a news conference in a Town Hall Monday morning, running through the chain of events that led to the multi-day outages and the projects that are either planned or under way that could have prevented these outages from occurring. Prior to the outages, CL&P had already identified nine needed infrastructure projects, including work to separate two overhead circuits, an issue that exacerbated the problems last week when one lightning strike took out two circuits. A utility spokesperson said that project is currently in the planning and engineering phase, but will be accelerated.
In the lone star state this morning, TXU is announcing their advance pay payment plan through the news calling it, “TXU Energy FlexPower (SM) which allows customers to pay for electricity in advance. The plan features free alerts and notifications via text message or email notifying customers when their account balance is low and also with the ability to confirm payments. The TXU Energy FlexPower(SM) is a pay as you go plan with no long-term contracts, no deposits, or no late fees. TXU Energy FlexPower(SM). Account payments can be made at any time online, by calling TXU Energy, or at thousands of authorized payment locations across the state. If a customer's balance ever runs out, they can add more funds to the account and can be reconnected in as little as a couple of hours.
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