The SPP Market Monitoring Unit has released its quarterly State of the Market report for the winter, which includes a discussion of several weather events.

The MMU said the market performed well during the winter months, “sending appropriate price signals during times when delivering power reliably was more challenging.” It said higher prices during an event indicates “a greater need for energy at a particular location.”

The report covers December 2018 through February 2019.

The MMU will host a webinar on Wednesday to add further color to the report.

Highlights for the period include:

• Day-ahead energy prices climbed slightly, while real-time energy prices fell from winter 2018 levels.
• Average hourly load in December and January was in line with the prior years, with only February exceeding previous levels.
• Wind generation capacity continued to climb, increasing to 21.4 GW, a 5.3-GW increase from a year ago.
• Generation by coal resources continued to decline, dropping to 44% of the fuel mix.
• Overall profits from virtual transactions at the resource level nearly doubled from the previous winter, while profits at interfaces shot up from $200,000 to $3 million, which the MMU attributed to day-ahead and real-time price differences stemming from a modeling issue.
• Net market-to-market payments from MISO were about $6.3 million, compared with nearly $16 million the year before.

— Tom Kleckner