Thousands of workers prepare to restore service after Hurricane Laura hits

Houston — More than 9,000 people are preparing to help restore service from Hurricane Laura during the week, area utilities said Aug. 25, and updated load forecasts indicate expectations of lower power demand if Laura hits the Louisiana-Texas Gulf Coast as a major hurricane as predicted by the National Hurricane Center.

Peakload forecasts for the remainder of the work week for the three independent system operator footprints in Laura's forecast path decreased on Aug. 25, compared with Aug. 24 forecasts, by an average of about 1%, but remained well above the five-year-average for a comparable late-August work week, likely as heat gripped the areas of their large footprints not affected by the hurricane.

Day-ahead on-peak power at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' North Hub, the market's most liquid location, was trading on the Intercontinental Exchange around $30.40/MWh for delivery Aug. 26, down from about $46.90/MWh for delivery Aug. 25, but the balance-of-week package was trading Aug. 25 at almost $47/MWh, up from $45.83/MWh on Aug. 24.

The short-term decrease in natural gas supply attributable to reduced output from the Gulf of Mexico may be prompting a speculatory lift in power prices, even as power demand diminishes.

As of about 4 pm CT Aug. 25, Laura was forecast to make landfall near the mouth of the Sabine River between Louisiana and Texas, which would place the ERCOT Houston Hub and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator's Louisiana and Texas hubs in the bull's eye.

ERCOT Houston was bid at $35/MWh Aug. 25 for delivery Aug. 26, compared with ERCOT's own day-ahead on-peak locational marginal price of $41.80/MWh on Aug. 24 for delivery Aug. 25.

MISO's Louisiana and Texas hubs had no trading activity on ICE Aug. 25, but MISO's own day-ahead on-peak LMPs on Aug. 24 were at $26.22/MWh and $27.72/MWh, respectively, for delivery Aug. 25.

Restoration preparations

Entergy's utilities in Louisiana and Texas are likely to bear the brunt of Laura's wrath, but CenterPoint Energy, which manages the main electric distribution system in the Houston area, and Cleco, which manages the electric system in central Louisiana, have also been preparing for the storm's arrival.

Entergy spokesman Neal Kirby on Aug. 25 said the company has almost 7,400 people preparing to restore service, but "additional public safety measures that must be taken as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic ... customers should prepare for extended restoration times, especially if there are widespread outages."

CenterPoint did not release an estimate on Aug. 25 of the number of people that it planned to have on hand for the service restoration effort, but the company tweeted that its customers should plan to be without power for three to five weeks in the event of a Category 3 storm with wind speeds of 111-130 mph, which was the National Hurricane Center's prediction Aug. 25.

Cleco said it has secured the help of about 1,340 technicians and vegetation specialists in addition to its own 300-500 people who will likely work on the storm's after effects.

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