US wholesale electricity prices at major trading hubs on a monthly average basis for on-peak hours were down 27%-37% across the nation in 2015 compared with 2014, according to the country’s Energy Information Administration.
The dip was driven largely by lower natural gas prices. Because natural gas-fired generation sets the marginal price in many markets, wholesale electricity prices are sensitive to changes in natural gas prices.
Monthly average wholesale electricity prices were typically highest in the Northeast, as was the case in 2014.
They were often the lowest at Mid-Columbia in the Pacific Northwest, where hydroelectric dams are a plentiful and low-cost resource, even though water and snowpack levels in 2015 were low compared to historical averages, the EIA said.
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