August 2023

Key Takeaways

WTI closed at $79.98/Barrel on Friday, up 2% from a week ago, and Brent closed at $83.98/Barrel, up 1.6% week-over-week. OPEC+ cuts have been extended to September and remain at 1 million barrels per day, applying upward pressure on crude oil prices. Electricity prices fell over the past week, with the NEPOOL 12-month strip down 1.5% week-over-week, settling at $64.26/MWh. New York set a new peak for the summer, reaching 28,735 MWh ending 18 on Friday, July 28. Natural gas prompt month futures saw a 2.3% decline week-over-week to land at $2.58/MMBtu. This week, we saw natural gas production remain above 100 Bcf/d but rise slightly to 102.5 Bcf/day, up from 101.7 Bcf/day the week prior.


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REC Markets & Trends


By Simon Pritchard, Managing Director of Analytics and Tarik Cetin, Senior Energy Analyst

A renewable energy certificate (REC) is a type of tradable certificate that represents the environmental attributes or benefits of generating electricity from renewable sources. Also known as a renewable energy credit, each REC represents the environmental attributes associated with the generation of one megawatt-hour of electricity from solar, wind, and other renewable sources. 


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CES Spotlight Simon Pritchard

On the day of his Spotlight interview, Simon Pritchard, Managing Director of Analytics, celebrated his 7th anniversary with CES. It proved to be a poignant day for Simon as he reflected back on his time with CES and as he looks forward to future days, both professionally and personally.

 

Simon’s role at CES is multifaceted. On a daily basis, he assists full-service and consulting clients in the corporate, higher education, and public sectors on various projects ranging from market and regulatory monitoring, energy budgeting, and demand management to renewable energy project evaluation and sustainability planning. He also oversees the competitive bid process for the sale of clients’ Renewable Energy Credits. Finally, he is a guiding force for CES’ growing team of Analysts, and he enjoys passing along the wisdom that helped to build his knowledge and mold his career to date.

 

Simon partners this month with Tarik Cetin, CES Energy Analyst on a blog piece titled REC Markets & Trends. It’s an informative and insightful piece on the REC Market (Compliance and Voluntary), types of RECs and requirements across the U.S., and includes a forward outlook. You won’t want to miss it!

 

Read on to learn more about Simon, gain a sense of his depth of character, and his experiences in the energy industry and with CES. 


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Photo by: Nina Callanan

CES Team News New Hires

Conor Larkin joined Competitive Energy Services as an Energy Analyst in 2023. Conor’s primary interests include energy policy and electrification initiatives. Prior to joining CES, Conor was a senior associate at ADL Ventures working to commercialize technologies in the energy, transportation, and buildings sectors. Conor has supported private firms and electricity utilities to deploy EV charging stations in dense urban centers and co-authored the Department of Energy funded, Advanced Building Construction Collaborative market insights report on U.S. building decarbonization. He holds a B.A. in Environmental Policy from Colby College. 

Will Dickerman joined Competitive Energy Services as an Energy Analyst in June 2023. He developed his passion for the energy sector at Dartmouth College, where he helped start the Dartmouth Energy Alliance, worked for the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society as a research assistant studying COVID’s impact on ISOs and RTOs, and conducted research on offshore wind. Will also interned in the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, where he focused on IRA implementation, demand response, net metering, and climate conferences. His primary interests include renewable energy procurement and beneficial electrification. Will holds an A.B. in History from Dartmouth College.

Ivy Bohrmann joined CES as the Director of Program Management in July 2023. She has extensive program management experience in the energy and tech industries, having previously worked in residential solar and storage programs at Sunnova and as a Program Manager for Google’s data center strategy team. Her interests span energy markets, asset optimization, integration of renewable energy and DERs, and energy policy. In her role, she oversees net energy billing programs for CES clients. She lives in Maine and holds a Masters in Energy Systems Management and a B.S. in Economics.  


Photos by Nina Callanan

Staff Pick Simon Pritchard

Think Again

By Adam Grant

Organizational psychologist Adam Grant is an expert on opening other people's minds--and our own. As Wharton's top-rated professor and the bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take, he makes it one of his guiding principles to argue like he's right but listen like he's wrong. With bold ideas and rigorous evidence, he investigates how we can embrace the joy of being wrong, bring nuance to charged conversations, and build schools, workplaces, and communities of lifelong learners. You'll learn how an international debate champion wins arguments, a Black musician persuades white supremacists to abandon hate, a vaccine whisperer convinces concerned parents to immunize their children, and Adam has coaxed Yankees fans to root for the Red Sox. Think Again reveals that we don't have to believe everything we think or internalize everything we feel. It's an invitation to let go of views that are no longer serving us well and prize mental flexibility over foolish consistency. If knowledge is power, knowing what we don't know is wisdom.

(Amazon.com Review)

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