March has the third highest electricity prices over the past 10 years in New England, bested only by January and February of this year, according to the regional power grid administrator.
ISO New England said wholesale electricity was $116.12 per megawatt hour in March, a 115 percent increase over March 2013.
The price spikes this year have been driven by constraints in the natural gas pipeline, which services power plants using natural gas and home heating systems. The limited supply of natural gas coupled with low temperatures in the region in March drove up the commodity cost of natural gas and therefore the wholesale price of electricity, which largely comes from power plants using natural gas.
The March price did represent a 24 percent drop from February, which had the second highest prices. January of this year holds the record at $162.88 per megawatt hour.
These data for record power prices traces back to March 2003 when the regional energy markets in their current form were implemented.
