Report: U.S. natural gas consumption set record in 2019

Consumption of natural gas, mostly for electric power uses, set a new record in the United States in 2019, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.

Use of natural gas for the creation of electric power grew by 7% — 2 billion cubic feet per day — but consumption remained relatively flat in the commercial, residential and industrial sectors, according to EIA’s Natural Gas Monthly.

Consumption across all sectors grew by 3% over 2018 levels, reaching a record of 85 billion cubic feet per day, EIA said. The record-level uses were driven mostly by new natural gas-fired power plants coming online and lower natural gas prices.

Electric power plants accounted for 36% of total U.S. natural gas consumption in 2019, EIA said. Locally, the natural gas-fueled Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station in South Huntingdon came online in late 2018 and has added 940 megawatts of capacity to the PJM Interconnection market in the mid-Atlantic states, including Pennsylvania.

Natural gas continues to account for the largest share of electricity generation after first surpassing coal-fired generation on an annual basis in 2016. In 2019, natural gas accounted for 38% of total electricity generation, followed by 23% for coal and 20% for nuclear, EIA said.

Pennsylvania remains the second-highest natural gas producing state after Texas, with 6.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas produced in 2019, according to the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office.