The O&G industry is the heart of American energy. It powers value chains that support millions of jobs, drive exports, and keep Texas globally competitive.
Quietly behind the flow of energy products is another critical input: electricity. As operations increasingly electrify to raise efficiency, improve safety, and reduce emissions, dependable electricity is essential.
From drilling sites and pipeline compressor stations to refineries, petrochemical plants and export terminals, electricity powers the systems that keep energy moving. That’s why the Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA) launched the Texas Electricity Power Pulse, a quarterly report tracking trends in the ERCOT power market and spotlighting how natural gas underpins reliability, affordability and growth across the state.
Electricity demand in Texas continues to rise faster than anywhere else in the nation. Strong population growth, industrial expansion and rapid data center additions have driven a 25% increase in total electricity use since 2020. In the third quarter of 2025, ERCOT’s load reached 141,232 GWh, which is equivalent to an average demand of 64 GW, exceeding use in California and Florida combined over the period. This scale reflects the magnitude of Texas’ growth and the challenge to maintain reliability in a system without capacity markets.
For industrial users, a litmus test for reliability comes during periods of "net peak load," that is, electricity demand less the output from intermittent sources. This is a demand that must be met by dispatchable generation, primarily natural gas, nuclear and coal, for the grid to remain stable. In Q3 2025, ERCOT’s net peak load reached as high as 70 GW. Meeting a 70-GW net peak requires instantaneous generation equivalent to powering every refinery, petrochemical complex and LNG terminal along the Gulf Coast, plus every home and business in Houston and Dallas, at the same time.
For the Texas industry, maintaining this level of dependable power requires resources that can ramp quickly and perform under pressure, making natural gas indispensable to ERCOT’s reliability.
Despite Texas’ nation-leading growth of wind and solar, natural gas remains the largest and most reliable power source. In Q3 2025, gas generation supplied 47.6% of total electricity, which was more than all renewable sources combined.
In fact, thermal and other dispatchable units provided at least half of the region’s power over 90% of the time during the quarter, stabilizing the grid whenever renewable output declined and demand rose.
Natural gas and electricity reliability are directly linked. As Texas industries electrify and expand, gas plants deliver the flexibility, speed and scale that renewable resources alone cannot provide. They enable refineries, chemical plants, data centers and manufacturers to operate continuously and safely, even as weather or market conditions shift.
Thanks to record-high production in Q3 2025, Texas produced about four times more natural gas than it required for power generation. TXOGA estimates that Texas averaged 28.2 bcf/d of dry natural gas in Q3 2025, compared with total in-state use of 15.6 bcf/d, including 7.6 bcf/d for industry and 7.3 bcf/d for power generation. Since 2020, as Texas has deployed the most renewable energy sources in the nation, natural gas use in the power sector increased 15%, reflecting its flexible ramping capability, local abundance and cost-effectiveness. Leveraging Texasproduced natural gas supports billions of dollars in industrial investment through cogeneration, combined-cycle plants and on-site power systems that enhance efficiency and resilience for manufacturers, refiners and high-tech industries alike.
Simply put, it’s often underappreciated how important reliable natural gas is to ensuring process safety, operational continuity and the global competitiveness of the facilities that anchor Texas’ economy. Through the Texas Electricity Power Pulse, TXOGA will continue to deliver fact-based insights on how natural gas and electricity work together to power growth, innovation and environmental progress across the state’s industrial landscape.
For more information, visit txoga.org.
