Electric Power Monthly April 2008
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Contacts:
Coordinator: Jorge Luna-Camara
Phone: (202) 586-3945
email: jorge.luna-camara@eia.doe.gov
Generation, Consumption, and Stocks: Channele Wirman
Phone: (202) 586-5356
e-mail: channele.wirman@eia.doe.gov
Sales, Revenue, and Average Retail Price of Electricity: Charlene Harris-Russell
Phone: (202) 586-2661
e-mail: charlene.harris-russell@eia.doe.gov
Utility Fuel Receipts, Costs, and Quality: Stephen Scott
Phone: (202) 586-5140
e-mail: stephen.scott@eia.doe.gov
Nonutility Fuel Receipts, Costs, and Quality: Rebecca McNerney
Phone: (202) 586-4509
email: rebecca.mcnerney@eia.doe.gov
Nonutility Generation, Consumption, and Stocks: Channele Wirman
Phone: (202) 586-5356
e-mail: channele.wirman@eia.doe.gov
Executive Summary
Generation: While average temperatures prevailed across most of the Nation in January 2008, warmer-than-average temperatures in the more densely populated Northeastern United States led to a total heating degree day level for the contiguous U.S. that, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was 3.7 percent lower than the average for the month of January, but 5.0 percent higher than the fairly mild January 2007. According to the Federal Reserve Board, industrial production was 2.3 percent higher than it had been in January 2007. The higher heating demand and rise in production led to a net generation total that was 3.3 percent or 11.7 million MWh higher than January 2007. The increased generation was largely met with natural gas-fired capacity, although coal and wind generation also increased, offsetting the decrease in hydroelectric and nuclear generation from January 2007.
Of the four major sources of net generation (coal, nuclear, natural gas, and conventional hydroelectric), only coal and gas-fired generation showed an increase from January 2007 to January 2008. According to NOAA, “26 percent of the U.S. was in moderate to exceptional drought in January 2008,” and 39 percent of the Southeast was under “extreme or exceptional drought.” These conditions, particularly those in the Southeast, contributed to the 15.3 percent or 4.0 million MWh drop in conventional hydroelectric generation from January 2007.
Coal generation in January 2008 was 3.8 percent or 6.7 million MWh higher than it was in January 2007. Net generation attributable to nuclear sources was 4.5 percent or 3.3 million MWh lower than the year before. Natural gas-fired generation was 20.8 percent or 12.4 million MWh higher than its January 2007 level, while petroleum liquid-fired generation was 10.3 percent or 0.5 million MWh lower compared to a year ago, with its overall share of net generation still quite small compared to coal, nuclear, and natural gas-fired sources. Wind-powered generation was 52.0 percent or 1.3 million MWh higher than it was in January 2007. Wind-powered generation contributed 10.9 percent of the increase in total net generation. Even with these significant increases, the contribution of wind-powered generation to the national total was only 1.0 percent in January 2008.
In January 2008, 50.1 percent of the Nation’s electric power was generated at coal-fired plants (Figure 1). Nuclear plants contributed 19.4 percent, 19.8 percent was generated at natural gas-fired plants, and 1.5 percent was generated at petroleum-fired plants. Conventional hydroelectric power provided 6.1 percent of the total, while other renewables (primarily biomass, but also geothermal, solar, and wind) and other miscellaneous energy sources generated the remaining electric power. Figure 2 shows net generation by month for the last 12 months.
Consumption of Fuels: Consumption of coal for power generation in January 2008 was up by 2.1 percent compared to January 2007. For the same time period, consumption of natural gas increased by 11.2 percent, while the consumption of petroleum liquids and petroleum coke decreased by 16.4 percent and 17.5 percent, respectively.
Fuel Stocks, Electric Power Sector, January 2008
January 2008 electric power sector coal stocks were lower than they were in December 2007. Total electric power sector coal stocks increased between January 2007 and January 2008 by 11.1 million tons (8.1 percent). Stocks of bituminous coal (including coal synfuel) decreased by 4.0 million tons comparing January 2007 to January 2008 (from 67.4 to 63.4 million tons, or 6.0 percent). Subbituminous coal stocks grew by 15.1 million tons between January 2007 and January 2008 (from 65.6 to 80.8 million tons, an increase of 23.1 percent).
Continuing the trend of all 12 months of 2007, petroleum liquid stocks at the end of January 2008 decreased from same-month levels of the prior year. Electric power sector liquid petroleum stocks totaled 44.0 million barrels at the end of January 2008, 4.2 percent (1.9 million barrels) lower than the level at the end of January 2007, but they were 2.4 percent (1.0 million barrels) higher than at the end of December 2007.
Fuel Receipts and Costs, January 2008
Receipts of petroleum liquids were 4,519 thousand barrels, up 29.3 percent from December 2007. The price of petroleum continues to increase. The average price paid for
petroleum liquids was $14.59 per MMBtu in January 2008, a 2.8-percent increase when compared with the $14.19 per MMBtu price in December 2007 and 79.5 percent higher than January 2007. The increases in the price of oil to electric power producers continues to match the increases in the spot price of a barrel of oil in the United States. At the end of January 2008, the spot price (FOB weighted by estimated import volume) of a barrel of oil was $83.18, a 0.4-percent increase over December 2007, and a 73.3-percent increase over January 2007. This increase was due to reduced overall production throughout most of 2007 and the weak dollar.
The average price paid for natural gas by electricity generators in January 2008 was $8.18 per MMBtu, a 6.5-percent increase from the December 2007 level of $7.68 per MMBtu (Table ES2.B.) The January 2008 price was 20.6 percent higher than the January 2007 price of $6.78 per MMBtu. Receipts of natural gas were 620,316 billion Btu, up 10.7 percent from December 2007, and 8.4 percent higher than January 2007. The average price of coal to electricity generators in January 2008 was $1.92 per MMBtu, up 5.5 percent from the December 2007 price and up 9.7 percent from the January 2007 price of $1.75 per MMBtu. The overall price for fossil fuels was $3.67 per MMBtu in January 2008, an 10.5-percent increase from December 2007, and 25.3 percent higher than in January 2007.
Sales, Revenue, and Average Retail Price, January 2008
The average retail price of electricity for January 2008 was 8.98 cents per kilowatthour (kWh), 0.8 percent higher than December 2007 when the average retail price of electricity was 8.91 cents per kWh; however, it was 3.0 percent higher than January 2007. An increase in electricity demand led to retail sales for January 2008 being 4.3 percent higher than January 2007. The average price of residential electricity for January 2008 decreased slightly to 10.20 cents per kWh, down from 10.31 cents per kWh in December 2007 but increased by 1.6 percent from January 2007.
Sales: For January 2008, the residential and commercial sectors experienced an increase of 6.8 and 1.8 percent, respectively, over January 2007 reflecting weather sensitive demand. Also, the industrial sector increased by 4.0 percent from January 2007. For the month, total retail sales were 327 billion kWh, an increase of 13.6 billion kWh or 4.3 percent when compared to January 2007.
Revenue: Total retail revenues for January 2008 increased by 7.5 percent when compared to January 2007. The data suggests that the revenue increase was related to the increase in the number of heating degree days, the increase in electricity demand, and higher fuel costs. The total retail revenues in January 2008 were $29.4 billion reflecting an increase of $2.0 billion over January 2007 revenues. Total retail revenues for January 2008 increased by $2.1 billion from December 2007. The retail revenues for the residential sector for January 2008 increased 8.5 percent over January 2007, while the commercial and industrial sectors showed increases of 6.3 and 7.2 percent, respectively.
Average Retail Price: Average residential retail prices in January 2008 increased over January 2007 rising from 10.04 cents per kWh to 10.20 cents per kWh. During the same period, the average commercial and industrial retail price increased 4.4 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively. In January 2008, the cost of electricity per unit increased to 8.98 cents per kWh from 8.91 cents per kWh in December 2007, but increased 3.0 percent from January 2007 (Figure 4).
For more information, see the Electric Power Monthly report at: http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html.
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