Natural Gas Storage Near Limit
By energy_linguist, August 13, 2009, News
A steady increase in U.S. natural gas supply despite a steady drop in energy demand is a bit intriguing, as reported by the Houston Chronicle on it’s NewsWatch: Energy blog. Texas electricity is specifically tied to the state of the natural gas market, as many of the power generators in Texas use natural gas to not only power their operations, but in some cases produce energy for consumption as well.
The lack of electricity demand is directly affecting prices in some instances, but no guarantee that the supply of natural gas will affect markets directly. The market in Texas and in particular Houston is experiencing a double digit cut in the purchased gas adjustment portion of customer bills. This portion is somewhere between 60-70 percent for most companies, including local transmission provide Centerpoint Energy, who is predicting a near 16 percent shift for that portion of its customer’s natural gas bills. So it’s possible we could see some immediate shifting in certain aspects of natural gas bills as we creep toward the fall.
It’s a bit early to tell if the continued shift and increase in the nation’s natural gas supply will drastically affect overall U.S. energy prices or not, but it’s certain that many states are already seeing drops in electricity from the slack in demand. Now may be as good of a time as any to consider shopping around in Texas if you are in a deregulated market.
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