Well, it happened again. 2017 was another down year for the US electric utility industry–despite a reasonably robust economy and increasing population. The 2.1 percent drop was bigger than usual. For those paying attention this should not come as news. In seven of the past ten years, electricity generation in the U.S. has declined. And in six of the past ten years kilowatt hour sales declined as well. (See Figure 1.) Sales to all three types of energy consumers—residential, commercial and industrial—fell off. What do these poor numbers in the face of a booming economy indicate for the future? Figure 1. GDP, population and electricity sales (2015=100) (Click to enlarge) Lawrence Berkeley National Labs did an analysis recently of electricity sales growth based on a detailed bottom up approach. Researchers looked at electricity usage (how many refrigerators, changes in light bulbs, etc). The government’s Energy Information Administration conducted its […]