Bentek Energy Estimates 31% Increase in Gas Usage at US Power Plants

Energy industry intelligence firm Bentek Energy has announced that natural gas deliveries to dual-fired power plants increased by an average of 31% per day in 2007 when compared to 2006. This equates to an additional 0.5 billion cubic feet per day of gas consumption by these power plants.

Bentek said that when comparing 2007 to 2005, natural gas use at these plants increased by an average of 52% per day. The company estimates that the total natural gas burnt at US power plants was up 2.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2007, an increase of 13%, when compared to 2006. The 0.5 Bcf/d of fuel used in switchable generation capacity was nearly 25% of the overall increase.

Bentek Energy noted that the sample used to analyze natural gas burn in the power generation sector includes over 460 natural gas fired power plants, of which 112 are dual-fired facilities. These dual-fired facilities generate approximately 94GW of base-load capacity which represents approximately 8% of total power production in the US.