[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Don't know the matter to help you, but I have a curious question. I read major power plants run on coal, which is a lot cheaper than natural gas, and NG is only used during peak hours. I saw somewhere coal price has also been going up.

TX is "special" in its power market. IIRC the state has required utilities to mostly use natural gas in order to encourage the state's drilling and production industry.

Coal is the major source of electricity in the US. The entire world (except for the US) is now in an increasingly serious coal supply shortage and the price of coal has been rocketing higher. Central Appalachia coal (good quality, relatively low sulfur stuff) has gone from $45-$50 a ton to well over $100/ton in the last year. The Asian countries are so desparate for coal that I recently read a report of Powder River Basin coal (low energy content sub bituminous coal) being railed 1800 miles to the port of Vancouver where it was put on a ship (that costs $100k/day to rent and operate) for delivery in Asia. This was unthinkable a year ago. And its getting worse, since China recently shut down dozens of coal-fired power plants due to lack of fuel, and lots of other plants have a few days' spply on hand (vs. the US where generators have an average of 50+ days supply on hand).