LANSING – Michigan Energy supplies should be both plentiful and in some cases cheaper this upcoming summer, an analysis released Thursday by the Michigan Agency for Energy said.
Some of the forecast is weather dependent. If the summer proves extremely hot, that could boost the use of electricity. Otherwise, the assessment anticipates overall electricity sales to decline in the state.
Industrial electricity sales are expected to increase by about 0.2 percent, the assessment said, and those should be less weather dependent than residential and commercial sales.
Unless air conditioning use increases appreciably, the analysis said that commercial sales should be down by 1.5 percent and commercial sales down by 1.3 percent. For 2016, that would give the state an overall electric sales outlook of 0.9 percent less than from 2015, to a total of 100.8 thousand gigawatt hours.
The forecast on gasoline indicates gas prices should still be down compared to 2015. While prices have increased over the last six months, the analysis said they are still about 13 percent lower than they were in 2015. Demand for gasoline is expected to increase in 2016 by 1.3 percent.
And the state should see an increase in overall natural gas sales, by 1.2 percent, driven largely by electric generation as more generating plants use natural gas and fewer use coal. The analysis said the state is expected to add 0.6 gigawatts for natural gas fired generation. However, commercial and residential sales are both expected to drop over the next several months.
For all of 2016, the analysis said, Michigan residents are expected to save $25 in natural gas costs.
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