Q1 US wholesale power sales fall 4.2% on year due to warmer-than-normal temperatures, pandemic

摘要

Total wholesale power sales in the first quarter of 2020 came to 1.33 billion MWh, a decline of 4.2% compared with the first quarter of 2019, according to data filed with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and compiled by S&P Global Platts in its Power Sales Analysis. The decline was due in large part to warmer-than-normal winter temperatures and the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The total reported to FERC by 577 generating companies and marketing and trading firms, came in 58 million MWh below the 1.39 billion MWh of sales reported in Q1 2019. Of the 1.333 billion MWh of wholesale power sold in Q1, 72.6 million MWh, or roughly 5.4% of the total, came from wind power facilities. Wholesale wind power sales rose 18% year over year in Q1, according to the data, while wholesale solar power sales, which increased 21% year on year in Q1, totaled 10.6 million MWh, or around 0.8% of the figure. Some 17 California community choice aggregators purchased 16.4 million MWh of power in Q1, an increase of 37.8% compared with Q1 2019.