U.S. utilities are expected to burn about 400 million tons of thermal coal in 2023, down 61% from the 2003-08 period when the U.S. consumed about 1 billion tons per year, with the drop not only due to the number of coal-plant retirements but because the remaining units are being used with less frequency, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysts (IEEFA) said in a report Monday.
The average U.S. coal plant ran at more than 60% of its potential as recently as 2014, but in the following years it has been used less and less, running at just 47.5% in 2019, when domestic coal consumption fell to 538 million tons, half of the amount used a decade earlier. The pandemic hit in 2020 and demand for electricity fell sharply, causing utilities across the country to idle their coal plants, an indication that they were among their most expensive and least flexible sources of power. Coal plants were used at just 40.5% of their potential generating ability in 2020, and coal consumption plummeted to 436 million tons, its lowest level in decades. Despite a slight rebound in 2021, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects coal consumption by the power sector to be nearly 35 million tons below the 2020 level in 2023-24 (light-blue bars to far end of graphic below).
