Blackouts
Back in 2006, the state passed a rule gradually relaxing the system-wide offer cap from $1,500 dollars in 2007 to $2,250 in 2008. From December 2010 to Jan. 15 of this year there was a temporary cap of $180 a megawatt hour. On Jan. 15, the cap went back to $2,250 dollars. Then, at midnight on Tuesday, Feb. 1st, the cap rose to $3,000 dollars. Around 5 a.m. Wednesday, 29 hours later, prices approached the $3,000 cap. With a few brief retreats, they stayed at or near the cap for the next six hours.
“I do find it curious that very soon after the cap was increased, we hit it for really a very remarkable stretch of time,” Brewster said.
So 50 Power plants go offline the day after the market cap reaches it’s all time high. Yeah that’s not fishy in a deregulated market.
well it’s still regulated, they just took advantage of a higher cap because they could. take away the cap and all other regulations and the customer will eventually force the price to be what it needs to be.