by Jeff Della Rosa (JDellaRosa@nwabj.com)
The amount of electricity produced from coal continues to fall, while the amount made from natural gas hits record highs, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
On July 21, electric power generated by natural gas-fired power plants reached 6.37 million megawatts-hours. New record highs also were set on July 18 and 20. Despite high natural gas prices, demand for natural gas for electricity generation was strong throughout July because of above-normal temperatures, recent natural gas-fired capacity additions, and reduced coal-fired electricity generation.
U.S. electricity demand typically peaks in the summer because of demand for air conditioning, and July ranked as the third hottest on record in the United States. Before this year, the previous daily peak for natural gas-fired electricity generation happened on July 27, 2020, when natural gas prices were historically low.
