The massive blizzard that hit the East Coast in late January prompted the largest withdrawal of natural gas inventories from storage this winter but had little impact on electricity demand, the US Energy Information Administration said Tuesday. People generally battened down at home during and after the storm so many businesses were closed. While this increased residential electricity usage, total electricity demand was offset by lower commercial consumption, EIA explained in its February Short-Term Energy Outlook. There were also power outages, most notably in North Carolina and New Jersey, that had a limited effect on demand as well, EIA said. But the agency noted that despite the snowstorm, average heating degree days for the first quarter of 2016 are projected “to be 12% lower than in the same period last year, contributing to first-quarter electricity sales to the residential sector that are 6% lower.” Total US electricity generation is […]