On February 28, 2017 FERC Staff released their Energy Infrastructure Update for January 2017. In these monthly reports, Staff provides updates on various projects in the natural gas, hydropower, electricity generation, and electricity transmission sectors.
According to the report, newly-installed and expanded electric generation units constituted over 2,300 MW of installed capacity for the month. Of that total, nearly half came from natural gas-powered units (representing around 1,300 MW of installed capacity), with the second and third largest amounts of capacity coming from solar power and wind power generating units, at 505 MW and 350 MW of installed capacity, respectively. The report also indicates that 7.2 miles of new natural gas pipeline was placed into service in January 2017, representing 2,300 MMcf/d.
With these additions, the report indicates that natural gas generation now represents over 43% of the total installed available generation capacity. Although January 2017 saw no new coal-fired capacity installed, coal-fired generation remains the second-largest source of total available generation capacity at about 24%.
A copy of the Energy Infrastructure Update for January 2017 can be found here.