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Weekly Observations (Week Of 5/7/2021)
- U.S. electricity consumption in early-May is tracking about 2.5% higher than year ago levels
- This week’s overall power mix looks similar to recent weeks among the various sources
- Keying in on this past week, Wind was the only power source that declined w/w…
- Coal, Gas, and Solar were each up 3-5%, while Wind dropped off 9%…
- …but Wind has the best y/y comparison in early-May (tracking up 44%)…
- …which gives us yet another datapoint in a string of many underscoring wind’s volatile nature day-to-day
- Looking at y/y comparisons, it’s interesting to observe natural gas down slightly y/y (-3%) while coal is up quite a bit (+23%) – this has been the case for several months now because 2020 coal utilization was pretty weak making for easy comps (when total demand came down in 2020, coal was the swing fuel that took most of the hit)… this a relative comparison (between gas and coal) to to watch for reversal going forward as coal’s importance in the US energy mix fades (it’s not dead yet!)
- In terms of geo-markets, California is the only market so far in May 2021 where electricity demand is lagging last year’s levels (down about 2.5% in this update and something we’ll be watching in the weeks ahead), while Florida is the strongest, tracking 15% higher than year ago levels (although Florida did lag y/y in April, so that’s averaging out now)
- Visit the Lium Power Consumption model for interactive forecasts
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