Texas takes top spot in U.S. energy production again

Texas is once again the national leader in energy production. With the EIA ranking, it tops in the United States for both oil and gas and electricity production, according to new data released Thursday, Sept. 16, by the federal Energy Information Administration and reported on Power Engineering.

The EIA’s latest State Energy Report notes Texas’ preeminent position in electricity, oil and gas and utility-scale wind energy production. In the latter, according to the EIA, Texas had installed 30.2 GW of wind power by December 2020, or nearly 30 percent of the U.S. wind turbine generation portfolio.

Texas also totaled more than 46.2 million MWh in net electricity generation for June 2021, the EIA state report shows. Florida was second at 22.6 million MWh, with Pennsylvania third at 21.4 million MWh.

EIA data earlier this year predicted that gas-fired power’s portion of the total electricity generation mix will drop over the next few years. In the Lone Star state, gas-fired power generates about 51 percent of the power in the state.

Texas is served by several grids, but the primary system operator is the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which has limited connection to other grids. This was pinpointed as a challenged this winter when a freezing storm impacted power generation and 52 GW of electricity capacity tripped offline for a period. ERCOT and other state utility entities have vowed to not let that happen again.