U.S. coal use up 2 pct from last week-Genscape

Fri Mar 4, 2011 10:59pm GMT

* Coal consumption off 11 pct from same week 2010
* Winter storm in West, cold in East push power demand

HOUSTON, March 4 (Reuters) - U.S. coal consumption rose 2 percent this week, Genscape said on Friday, as a winter storm in the West and cold weather in the East supported heating
demand.

Use of coal dropped 11 percent from the same week in 2010.

In the populous East, coal use rose 1 percent from the previous week but was down 13 percent from the same week last year. The Midwest and Southeast are coal-dependent for power.

In the less populous West, which has fewer coal-fired power plants, coal use was up 3 percent week-to-week and up 5 percent year-over-year.

Coal use swings up and down seasonally, and varies from week to week and region to region, depending on electricity demand to power heaters and run air-conditioners.

Winter cold generally has less effect on coal use than summer heat because natural gas and oil meet much of the nation's heating needs. Air-conditioning relies more on electricity.

Coal plants produce 50 percent of U.S. electricity. Power generation accounts for more than 90 percent of U.S. coal consumption.

Genscape's regional indexes are calculated separately from the national index and do not always add up to the separately calculated U.S. total, Genscape has said.
Region March 2 Prev wk Yr ago Change wk Change yr
(Million tons) (Percent)
National 17.99 17.71 20.17 +2 -11
East 15.80 15.61 18.13 +1 -13
West 2.28 2.22 2.18 +3 +5

(Reporting by Bruce Nichols; Editing by Marguerita Choy,sourced:Thomson Reuters)