HOUSTON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. coal consumption during the
past week rose 3 percent from the previous week on higher power
demand and nuclear plant outages but was 1 percent below the
same week last year, Genscape said on Friday.
Consumption in the populous East for the week ended
Thursday rose 2 percent from the previous week but was 1
percent less than the same week in 2008, the power data
provider said.
In the less populated West, coal demand was up 4 percent
from the previous week but off 6 percent from the same week a
year ago.
A surge in power demand in the Midwest was the main driver
of the rebound. Another factor was the number of nuclear plants
offline, with coal-fired plants closing gaps between supply and
demand, Genscape said.
Genscape has said comparisons with last year are less
meaningful than in most years because the economic crisis
deepened rapidly after mid-September 2008.
"But even finding a stable bottom for consumption is better
news than the electricity industry has had for a while,"
Genscape said.
The regional indexes are calculated separately from the
national index. They do not always add up to a number equaling
the separately calculated U.S. total, Genscape has said.
Region Nov 5 Last wk Yr ago Pct wk Pct yr
Nation 18.58 18.12 18.80 +3 -1
East 16.30 15.98 16.46 +2 -1
West 2.36 2.26 2.51 +4 -6
(Reporting by Bruce Nichols; Editing by David Gregorio)
