Natural Gas Supply Association

• 25 percent of gas consumed in the U.S. was used for electricity generation, up from 20 percent in 1988.
• Natural gas contributed 13.5 percent of the total U.S. electricity generated.
• Natural gas was used to generate 432.2 million megawatt-hours, up from 322.7 million megawatt-hours in 1988.
• Natural gas generating capacity was 159,908 megawatts (21 percent of total generating capacity), up from 128,872 megawatts (18 percent of total generating capacity) in 1988.

• Used 1.72 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
• Used gas for 53 percent of total generation.
• Generated a total of 327 million megawatt hours.
• Had natural gas generating capacity of 27,413 megawatts.

• Increased gas consumption by 1,028 billion cubic feet (148 percent).
• Increased their share of total U.S. natural gas used for electric generation from 22 percent to 40 percent.
• Increased gas-fired capacity from 37 percent to 47 percent.
• Increased gas-fired capacity utilization from 64 percent to 72 percent.
• Installed gas-fired capacity for 61 percent of total capacity increases, thus increasing total gas-fired capacity by 120 percent.

• Used 2.68 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
• Used gas-fired generation for 9 percent of total utility generation.
• Decreased gas-fired capacity utilization from 25 percent to 22 percent.
• Generated a total of 2,883 million megawatt hours.
• Had natural gas generating capacity of 132,495 megawatts, or 19 percent of their total generating capacity.

• Increased gas consumption by 46 billion cubic feet (1.7 percent).
• Decreased their share of total U.S. gas consumption from 16.1 percent to 14.5 percent.

• A cleaner environment
  Electric generators in many regions are under heavy pressure to reduce emissions as a clean-air measure. Large electric plants emit over 90 percent of the nitrogen oxides (NOx) from stationary sources in the Northeast, for instance, complicating the region's compliance with federal ground-level ozone standards (to which NOx is a precursor). Dependence of electric utilities on coal also results in acid rain, air toxic emissions, and particulate problems that are a continuing focus of new federal and state environmental regulations.
  
  
  In contrast, natural gas combined-cycle facilities produce only a fraction of coal's emissions--typically, less than one percent of the sulfur dioxide and particulates, and 20 percent of the nitrogen oxides.
  
  

  Efficient energy use
  Gas combined-cycle electric generation is 45-50 percent efficient, while coal-generation efficiency levels hover around 30-35 percent. Additionally, coal plants are one-third to twice as capital-intensive as gas plants, primarily because of higher construction and maintenance costs. Thus, even with the higher BTU input price of gas, combined-cycle generators can often produce electricity at a fraction of the cost of coal facilities.
  
  

  Helping the nation find a satisfactory replacement for nuclear energy
  Nuclear energy currently fuels 21 percent of the nation's electric generation, but licenses for 46 of the nation's 109 operating nuclear units will expire by 2015. Chances appear good that gas can replace much of this expiring capacity for reasons that include: 1) public opposition to nuclear power; 2) the unsolved issue of how to dispose of nuclear waste; 3) construction costs: gas-fueled generation construction costs about one-sixth the amount for nuclear construction; 4) profitability: in well-documented case studies, some utilities have found that converting nuclear facilities to gas-burning can turn major money-losers into profitable operations.
  
  

This page was last updated August 31, 1997.