EMF Analytics: U.S. Power – Gas Burn Report
BENTEK’s Gas Burn Number hit a blistering 42.3 BCF on August 2nd.
US electricity production for the week ended August 5 hit an all-time weekly output record of 98,583 gigawatt hours according to the Edison Electric Institute. It was the second time in the past three weeks that a new record was set and followed the hottest July since 1895 based on Weather Channel reports.
During the same period, natural gas storage has experienced unprecedented Summer withdrawals: a withdrawal of 7 BCF for the week ending July 21 and another withdrawal of -12 BCF for the week ending August 4. According to Energy Information Administration (EIA), even the Eastern Storage Region experienced a withdrawal during the last reporting week. The demand for natural gas to fuel power generation facilities has taken center stage in the natural gas market. The need for prompt, accurate information about natural gas use in the power generation sector has never been greater.
To meet this need, today BENTEK is introducing a new report which provides daily summary data and plant-by-plant detail on natural gas burned for power generation titled the BENTEK U.S. Power – Gas Burn Report. The Gas Burn Report is the most comprehensive source for daily U.S. natural gas and dual-fired power plant gas consumption data covering 427 plants representing about 46% of U.S. summer consumption (April-October, segmented by NERC region and state. The Gas Burn Report provides a top-down and a bottom-up view of the gas burned for power generation.
- Top Down – Our new BENTEK Gas Burn Number provides a daily snapshot of the total U.S. power demand comparable to the EIA’s U.S. Natural Gas Deliveries to Electric Power Consumers statistical series. Our Gas Burn Number is based on a extreemly accurate statistical relationship between the BENTEK Sample facilities and EIA total consumption data (R-square of 99%).
- Energy Analytics – The detailed portion of our Gas Burn report is in three sections: (a) Daily gas consumption for power generation organized by nine NERC regions. You can also see daily changes from the day prior, month-to-date (MTD) changes from the previous year, and summer-to-date changes from the previous year’s summer months; (b) Daily gas consumption for power generation organized by by Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage week. The EIA storage week runs from Friday through Thursday; we group our daily power demand data into these EIA weeks to provide a comparison against storage injections and withdrawals; (c) detailed plant-by-plant breakdown of gas consumption at each of the 427 plants monitored by BENTEK’s Energy Data Warehouse.
Key Developments in the Power Sector
BENTEK's New Gas Burn Report has revealed some key development in the power sector over the past few weeks. For example:
- 62 peaking plants out of the 427 total plants monitored show significantly increased use in July 2006, either turning on for the first time, or burning longer and more frequently than in July 2005.
- During the EIA storage weeks of 7/14 and 7/28, the BENTEK Gas Burn Report showed extremely high levels of gas burned for power generation (253 Bcf and 257 Bcf respectively), which corresponded with the record-setting withdrawals from storage (-7 Bcf and -12 Bcf).
- According to our Gas Burn Report, the highest natural gas power plant burn on record occurred on 8/02, coming in at a blistering 42.3 Bcf and occurring during a week where the average daily burn was 36.7Bcf.
Click here for a free trial subscription
to the BENTEK U.S. Power – Gas Burn Report
Copyright © 2008 by BENTEK Energy, LLC.
Terms and Disclaimer
