US power plant operators generated 6.9 m MWh of electricity from natural gas, reckoned on a daily basis, in the lower 48 states on 9 July, 2024, the US Energy Information Administration reports. It is probably the most in history, says EIA, and definitely the most since at least 1 January 2019, when the EIA began to collect hourly data about natural gas generation.
The spike in natural gas-fired generation on 9 July was caused by a combination of high temperatures across most of the country and a steep drop in wind generation. According to the National Weather Service, most of the USA experienced temperatures well above average on 9 July, 2024, with particularly high temperatures on the West Coast and East Coast. Wind generation in the lower 48 states totalled only 0.3 million MWh on 9 July, this year, compared to the 1.3 million MWh daily average in June 2024.
According to preliminary data from the EIA, wind power in the contiguous United States produced only 302 615 MWh on Tuesday 23 July, an even lower figure than on the previous day, when wind power produced only 335 753 MWh. Six of the 10 worst days for wind power this year have been in July, but before these recent totals, there had not been a comparably bad day since October 4, 2021.
Wind farms were on track to produce an average of just 4% of power generation during the week of 22 July, down from 7% the previous week and 12% so far in 2024, according to the EIA.
