Situation
A large generation and transmission cooperative engaged CRA’s Energy Practice to provide semi-annual outlooks for wholesale electricity and natural gas markets. The forecasts were intended to support the cooperative’s resource planning, fuel procurement, budgeting, and evaluation of major generation and investment decisions.
Analysis
CRA combined its capacity-expansion and production-cost modeling capabilities to develop long-term forecasts of power prices, generation mix, capacity additions and retirements, and other key market fundamentals. CRA also deployed its natural gas market modeling to forecast regional gas prices and supply-demand dynamics. Each semi-annual update incorporated changes in commodity markets, load expectations, technology costs, environmental policy, and market and regulatory developments.
Result
The cooperative has relied on CRA’s market outlooks for more than five years as a consistent, independent view of evolving power and natural gas markets. The analysis has informed resource and fuel planning and provided a common market foundation for evaluating significant investment and strategic decisions.
