Wholesale power prices in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc. market more than tripled in July, surpassing $180/MWh as demand set back-to-back records in the third week of the month when excessive heat enveloped the region.

Day-ahead on-peak power prices in ERCOT averaged $182.09/MWh in July, a 240.43% jump from the same period in 2021, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

Average U.S. on-peak spot power prices were up 93.57% year over year to $107.10/MWh, with the West being the only region that logged a decline.

ERCOT load during the month peaked July 20 at 79,828 MW, the grid operator's third all-time high in a row, after recording 79,039 MW on July 19 and 79,621 MW on July 18.

During the July 14 Public Utility Commission of Texas meeting, Commissioner Will McAdams said that before June 12, ERCOT had not set a demand record since August 2019. Since then, McAdams said, the state experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, a global economic shutdown and a February 2021 deadly winter storm, prompting a massive effort to restructure the power market.

The peak load recorded in July was 9.2% higher than the same month a year ago.

Except for California ISO, other independent system operators in the country also booked higher peak demand during the month.

Spot natural gas prices also climbed at an average of 90.10% year over year to $7.299/MMBtu. ISO New England logged an increase of 128.03%, while the rest saw increases of between 57.72% and 107.07%

Spark spreads were mixed, with gas-fired implied heat rates — the rate at which the market cost of power equals the cost of burning natural gas to generate electricity — increasing 1.83% on average to 14,674 Btu/kWh, as the decline in CAISO offset increases in others.

Across the U.S., coal-fired implied heat rates also diverged, with year-over-year changes in national averages ranging from a decline of 29.76% to an increase of 84.80%.

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Market prices and included industry data are current as of the time of publication and are subject to change.

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