U.S. power consumption will rise 1.6% this year as state and local governments ease coronavirus lockdowns, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday in its Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO), as reported by Reuters.
The EIA projected power demand will rise to a two-year high of 3,864 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2021 and 3,931 billion kWh in 2022 from a coronavirus-depressed, 11-year low of 3,803 billion kWh in 2020.
That compares with an all-time high of 4,003 billion kWh in 2018.
EIA said natural gas’s share of power generation will slide from 39% in 2020 to 37% in 2021 and 35% in 2022 as gas prices increase, while coal’s share will rise from 20% in 2020 to 21% in 2021 and 22% in 2022.
Nuclear’s share of power generation will ease from 21% in 2020 to 20% in 2021 and 19% in 2022, while renewables will rise from 20% in 2020 to 21% in 2021 and 23% in 2022.
EIA projected 2021 power sales would rise to 1,489 billion kWh for residential consumers, which would be a record high as continuing lockdowns cause more people to work from home, 1,293 billion kWh to commercial customers and 945 billion kWh to industrials.
That compares with all-time highs of 1,469 billion kWh in 2018 for residential consumers, 1,382 billion kWh in 2018 for commercial customers and 1,064 billion kWh in 2000 for industrials.
EIA also projected 2021 natural gas sales would rise to 12.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) for residential consumers, 9.1 bcfd to commercial customers and 23.0 bcfd for industrials, but fall to 29.2 bcfd for power generation.
That compares with all-time highs of 14.4 bcfd in 1996 for residential consumers, 9.6 bcfd in 2018 for commercial customers, 23.8 bcfd in 1973 for industrials and 31.8 bcfd in 2020 for power generation.
Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall