- Electricity generated from natural gas hit an all-time high in the US last month despite soaring prices.
- High usage is expected to exacerbate energy shortages, as natural gas inventories run low.
Natural gas-powered electricity generation spiked to an all-time high in the US last month according to data from the Energy Information Administration, deepening supply constraints amid a global energy crisis.
Electricity generated from natural gas plants hit 6.37 million megawatthours by the last week of July, according to a Tuesday report by the EIA.
That's largely because electricity use spikes during the hotter summer months, the report said, but it comes at a hefty cost. Natural gas futures recently climbed to $10 per million British thermal units for the first time since 2008, Bloomberg reported, and Truist analyst Neal Dingmann thinks natural gas prices could hit $12-$15 per million BTUs by wintertime.
High natural gas consumption in the US is expected to worsen the supply crunch in the energy market, as western nations struggle to replace Russian gas supplies. The US, which has become the world's largest liquid natural gas exporter, currently has 10% less natural gas inventory than it typically does ahead of winter.
Europe's inventory is even worse off. Gas inventories across the Atlantic are about 70% full, Reuters reported, but the IEA has said the EU's supply must be at least 90% full to ensure a safe winter.
That's pushed other countries to scramble to shore up supplies. The EU has implemented energy-saving measures to cut natural gas consumption by at least 15%, Bloomberg reported last month, and Germany, which is particularly impacted amid the supply shortage, needs to cut gas consumption by 20% ahead of winter, according to the country's top energy regulator.