Spot Market Wholesale Electricity Prices

For the three-month period September–November 2025 real-time wholesale electricity prices remained stable as expected, averaging 4.6 cents per kWh, trending upward from September as temperatures started the normal decline into November. As November gave way to slightly chillier temperatures, there were a few anomalies with Sunday, November 23, averaging 14.4 cents, the high day for the month.

The first week of December saw the beginning of a three-wave polar vortex to hit New England into mid-December, resulting in electricity prices averaging 15.6 cents per kWh. Friday, December 5 averaged 18.1 cents as the first blast hit. Two more blasts are expected in the next week with the second arriving on December 9 and December 10, and the following weekend.

Table 1 depicts average monthly wholesale electricity prices for the past 5 years. (2019 through November 30, 2025)

Future Energy Price Trends Across 2026, 2027, and 2028

Futures prices for Calendar year 2026 remained relatively level from the first week of September into the end of October. As extended forecasts of colder weather and a Polar Vortex during December, prices started a steep 7-week climb beginning October 24, from 6.41 cents to 8 cents by December 5.

During that same period, 2027 and 2028 futures climbed as well but not as high as 2026 at 7.1 cents and 6.5 cents respectively. The 2026 futures rose slightly above the previous high of 7.9 cents on August 26, 2022.

The futures electricity price for 2026 continues to stay well above 2027 and 2028 prices.

Table 2 depicts electricity futures prices for Calendar years 2026, 2027 and 2028 as of December.

Natural Gas

2026 natural gas futures gradually increased at the beginning of September and drove the trend of the 2026 electricity futures. With the colder weather and forecast of the polar vortex in the beginning of December 2026, the 2026 futures prices started to increase sharply, from $4.16 per dekatherm on December 1 to hitting $4.48 per dekatherm by the end of the week. The 2027 and 2028 futures remained relatively flat. During that same time frame in the first week of December, prompt month natural gas (January 2026) increased from $4.91 to $5.29 per dekatherm.

Table 3 depicts natural gas futures prices for Calendar years 2026, 2027, and 2028, and the 12-month price December 2025 – November 2026, as of December 5.

Electricity prices in New England continue to generally track natural gas prices, as depicted in Table 4, through December 5.

Natural Gas Storage

With injections of natural gas into storage continuing into the first week of November, levels peaked at 3,960 Bcf for the year week-ending November 7, 2025, before the withdrawal season started the following week. As of the week-ending November 28, storage levels are well above the 5-year average of 3,732 Bcf and just slightly above the 5-year maximum of 3,941 Bcf.

Table 5 – Natural Gas Storage as of November 28, 2025
Note: Electricity prices referenced here are energy-only and do not reflect a total electricity supply price that includes capacity, ancillaries, RECs, Fuel Security, etc. Additionally, natural gas prices referenced are NYMEX-only and do not include basis and capacity costs.