EIA: US power consumption will reach new highs by 2025 and 26.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration stated in its Tuesday Short Term Energy Outlook that the U.S. will reach record levels of power consumption in 2025 and in 2026.
EIA projects that the demand for electricity will increase to 4,179 billion Kilowatt Hours (kWh) by 2025, and to 4,239 billion in 2026. This is an increase from a previous record of 4,082 billion in 2024.
EIA predicts that by 2025, residential customers will consume 1,524 billion kWh of electricity. Commercial customers will consume 1,458 trillion kWh and industrial customers 1,054 trillion kWh.
These forecasts are compared to the all-time records of 1,509 billions kWh for residential customers in 2022; 1,421 billions kWh for commercial customers in 2024 and 1,064 trillions kWh for industrial customers in 2000.
EIA predicted that natural gas would lose its share in power generation from 43% to 40% by 2025, and then 39% by 2026. Coal's share of power generation will decline from 16% to 15% by 2026 as renewables increase.
According to the outlook, the percentage of renewable energy will increase from 23% to 25% by 2025, and to 27% by 2026. Nuclear power will remain at 19% for 2025 and in 2026.
EIA predicted that gas sales for residential customers would reach 13.1 billion cubic foot per day (bcfd), while commercial customers would only see 9.7 bcfd. Industrial customers will experience a drop to 23.1 bcfd, and power generation to 35.7 bcfd.
This compares to all-time records of 14.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 1996 for residential customers, 9.6 billion cubic feet per day in 2019 for commercial clients, 23.8 Bcfd for industrial customers in 1973 and 36.9 Bcfd for power generation in 2024. (Reporting and editing by Chris Reese; Scott DiSavino)
(source: Reuters)
