With total power demand up 1% from November 2012, natural gas-fired generation decreased by a mere 2% while coal stumbled 9% in November 2013, according to a recent assessment from Genscape.
Nuclear generation and renewable energy continued to show strength, Genscape said Dec. 4.
In fact, nuclear power was up 13% versus the prior November after Hurricane Sandy helped drive unplanned outages in 2012, Genscape said. That factor, combined with several late 2012 refueling outages, drove last year’s nuclear output to the lowest November since before 2001.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Sequoyah 2, SCANA (NYSE:SCG) Summer, Surry 2, and Entergy (NYSE:ETR) Waterford 3 were all at 100% this year versus being offline in 2012. Overall, 31 nuclear units ran at least 15% stronger in November 2013, while only 15 were at least 15% weaker, Genscape said.
Year-to-date natural gas continues to lag 2012 power output by 12% as coal still holds a 4% edge for 2013, the firm said.
Renewables continued their strong 2013 and were up 20% this month compared to last November and 7% stronger year-to-date.
Genscape is a global provider of real-time data, analytics and forecasting services for commodity and financial markets.
