“Record” El Nino Already Wreaking Havoc With California Electricity Prices

Just three weeks ago we warned of “all kinds of mayhem” about to be let loose as scientists feared this year’s El Nino may be among the biggest ever, and as Bloomberg reports, the impact is already being felt in California… but not in much needed rain or snow. California has yet to see the full force of El Nino, and it’s already tripping up the state’s power-demand forecasters. The state saw “significant” electricity price spikes in the third quarter as El Nino made it difficult to predict how much power would be needed with a “relatively high percentage of intervals” when prices spiked above $1,000 a megawatt-hour in the 5-minute market… 25 times normal costs!
As we detailed previously, in the simplest terms, an El Nino pattern is a warming of the equatorial Pacific caused by a weakening of the trade winds that normally push sun-warmed waters to the west. This triggers a reaction from the atmosphere above.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 11/18/2015.