[thackney]

Some older data in this presentation.

http://www.eia.gov/pressroom/presentations/sieminski_06052013.pdf

[meatloaf]

I was just looking at that. The utility industry went on a buying spree when they added natural gas fired capacity starting in the early nineties due to a need for more reserve capacity. Enron was rumored to have contracted for 200 units from GE before they went bankrupt.

From the graphs it looks like even though the utilities increased their generation capacity to a current 30% from natural gas today, they’ve taken advantage of using the plants as on demand sources.

Thanks for pointing out my error! What happens when the utilities replace the coal fired base load power plants with natural gas to maintain capacity in the face of EPA mandated coal plant shutdowns?

In the past coal was still there to allow the natural gas fired units to be used on a discretionary basis/only as needed.

IOW are the utilities moving to a point where they will be forced to rely more heavily on natural gas? The question then is what will happen to pricing?

[meatloaf]

Thanks. Electrical power capacity doubled between 1977 and 2005. Natural gas usage also doubled during that period.