U.S. Natural Gas-Fired Power Generation Hits New Daily Record During Summer 2024: EIA

U.S. natural gas fired electricity plants produced over 7 million megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity on Aug. 2, 2024, according to an Oct. 8 report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This accounted for nearly 50 percent of all power generated in the U.S. on that day.

On Aug. 2, 7.1 million MWh of natural gas fired power was produced in the U.S., up 6.8 percent compared to last summer’s record set on July 28, 2023.

During the June to August period this year, overall power generation was three percent higher during the same period in 2023. Accordingly, the daily average for natural gas fired power production for summer 2024 also rose three percent to 5.9 million MWh. During summer 2024, nine out of the ten days with highest U.S. natural gas fired power generation on record occurred. Out of those nine days, six arose during August 2024.

The increase in gas for power generation can be attributed to a number of reasons. Firstly, summer 2024 was the fourth hottest summer on record for the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  Moreover, the average temperature for August across the U.S. was 1.9 degrees above the monthly average. Secondly, natural gas prices have declined to relatively low levels compared to 2022. The decline in U.S. natural gas prices can be credited to low natural gas consumption, high natural gas production and higher natural gas stocks compared to the previous five-year average (2018-2022). Thirdly, there has been an increase in new combined cycle generation capacity and increased generator capacity factors.

The sources of energy to produce electricity in the U.S., particularly during the summer, has altered significantly over the last few years. More recently, there has been more renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar and less natural gas and coal. Wind and solar are intermittent sources of generation; they only produce electricity when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. As a result, natural gas is used more often as a balancing fuel in the summer.