Energy Insights: Peak Daily Domestic Demand for Natural Gas and Electricity

• The natural gas system set a record for total daily domestic demand of 157.3 bcf on 12/24/2022. This was a significant increase over the record previously set on 1/1/2018 when total daily demand reached 149.3 bcf.
• The typical peak natural gas and electricity demand days take place in January and July +/- 15 days.
• Domestic demand only includes power generation, residential, commercial, and industrial end users. Additional natural gas supplied through LNG and Mexican exports were not included.
• During the 2020 and 2021 winter heating seasons, peak day demand was lower than in recent years due to both demand impacts from the ongoing global pandemic as well as back-to-back winters with warmer-than-average national temperatures.
• During the hottest day in the summer when cooling demand will be at its highest, the electric grid set a record of 15,465 GWh compared to last year’s record of 14,168 GWh.
• Converting the two sources of energy to total daily MMBtu, the record demand day for gas was 163.0 million MMBtu compared to 52.8 million MMBtu for electricity. This demonstrates that the gas distribution system on the coldest days can supply 3.1 times as much energy per 24 hours as the electric grid on the hottest days.

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