Here is the status of power recovery, at the transmission level. Transmission level impacts did occur– and will have an impact on supply markets. How much of an impact, we are not certain. We will let you know when we get more information. It is no surprise that prices tend to drop when demand falls, as it has in New York, New Jersey and some part of New England this week. The updates, below from the NY and NJ power pools report on recovery efforts at the transmission level, as we mentioned. Utility-level distribution service will take longer to restore, and will occur in your local community. In general, we understand that some of lower Manhattan’s power is back and more will be restored over the weekend. Westchester Country will take longer.

New York’s Status

Here is an update from the NYISO on the status of transmission-level power recovery efforts.

• More than 40 transmission circuits have been restored over the past two days, and 51 transmission circuits remain out of service, including several external ties to ISO-New England and PJM. The utilities continue to give priority to repairing and restoring transmission circuits.
• Approximately 2,130 megawatts (MW) of generation have been restored over the past two days, and approximately 4,622 MW remain out of service as the result of Hurricane Sandy.
• The forecasted peak load for today is 16,500 MW, which is below the average peak load of 19,000 MW – 20,000 MW experienced on a normal business day at this time of year. A megawatt serves the electricity needs of approximately 800 to 1,000 homes.

See additional information here.

New Jersey’s Status

The Independent System Operator for New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland (and Illinois) is known as PJM. The following update is available as of 5pm on October 31.

• PJM member companies continue working to restore electric service to their customers. As of 5 p.m., Oct. 31, 3.3 million customers are still out of service. About 2 million are in New Jersey.
• We expect that all but about six transmission facilities will be back in service by the end of this week. Because most of the facilities which are expected to remain out of service have water damage (some salt water), the returning them to service will take longer.
• Overall, the high-voltage transmission system remains in good shape. There is enough generation available in the region to cover the loss of those generating stations that are out of service because of the storm.

Note that as of 5pm on November 1, the number of households out of power has fallen to 2.4 million– largely in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

See additional information here.