Natural Gas Just Keeps Doing, Performing and Rewarding Consumers
Yesterday’s post at Today in Energy post from the Energy Information Administration must have distressed the Biden Administration of which it is a somewhat remote part. Maybe that’s why it’s a shorter post than is typical. have posted most of it below (in a slightly different format):
Electricity generation from units that primarily consume natural gas in the U.S. Lower 48 states has increased for all hours of the day since 2021, according to data reported on Form EIA-930, Hourly and Daily Balancing Authority Operations Report.
Increased electricity generation from natural gas was due mostly to coal retirements, increases in natural gas-fired electricity generating capacity, and low natural gas prices in 2023.
Off-peak natural gas-fired generation rose about 22% between 2021 and 2023, according to our data, displacing coal-fired units as an overnight source of electricity.
Balancing authorities, the organizations responsible for maintaining the U.S. electric grid, report the volume of electricity from electric generators by primary fuel source on Form EIA-930. Balancing authorities may not know actual fuel consumption.
The interesting thing about the chart, apart from the increase in natural gas based generation of electricity is the steady ability of natural gas fueled power plants to deliver their product with no noticeable ‘duck curve’ that renewables produce in places such as California.
Solar and wind simply cannot do what we see in the above graph. It’s impossible without steady wind and 24-hour sunshine. Battery storage isn’t going to do it either, unless we put thousands of unextinquishable firebombs throughout our communities, and no wants that. And, overbuilding won’t help either for the obvious reason.
This means each new solar or wind project requires rendundant generating capacity that can do what the graph shows. That, in turn, means massive inefficiencies and higher electric costs. It couldn’t be more clear and a Biden agency has given us the facts. Ironic, isn’t it, that the folks wanting to kill gas power plants are going to demand more of them by their policies?
#NaturalGas #PowerPlants #EIA #Generation #Electricity