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A warm start to this summer kept electricity generators busy but fell shy of breaking demand records, a new federal report found.
The Energy Information Administration said the nation's net generation increased 3.9 percent this June from a year earlier.
"Virtually every state outside of the Northeast recorded above- to much-above average temperatures in June," as opposed to June 2017, which saw "only slightly above average temperatures," EIA said in its
Electricity Monthly Update released Aug. 24.
"This led to a greater need for residential customer cooling during June 2018 compared to the previous year, which increased the need for electricity generation compared to a year ago."
"The highest demand relative to all-time peaks occurred in the Midwest (MISO) and Texas (ERCOT)," the report said. "MISO hit 96 percent of its all-time peak demand and ERCOT hit 97 percent of its all-time peak demand late in the month. ERCOT's lowest demand day for the month was still 73 percent of its all-time peak, as Texas' population growth and market structure leads to continually climbing electricity demand levels."
Close though it was, EIA said no new electricity demand records were set.
As for where that electricity came from, EIA said all regions except the Northeast saw an increase in generation from natural gas from June 2017. The biggest year-to-year gain came in the Central region, where natural gas generation jumped by 4,118 gigawatt-hours, an increase of 35 percent.
"All regions of the country, except for the Southeast, saw a decrease in electricity generation from coal compared to the previous year. Texas saw the largest decrease in electricity from coal, down 2,162 GWh compared to last June," the report noted.