According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), the US power sector's fossil fuel consumption has been declining in 2017 to 22.5 quadrillion British thermal units (567 Mtoe), which is the lowest level ever since 1994. The main driver behind is the lower use of coal and petroleum as a fuel, even though it was partially offset by natural gas. Technology improvements and changes in the fuel mix also drove the electricity generation sector to produce more while consuming less fossil fuels. The generation-weighted average efficiency of power generation units has improved. This also affects the domestic CO2 emissions from the power sector, which reached their lowest levels in 2017 since 1987.
Besides, the 2017 coal consumption in the power sector reached its lowest level since 1982 while oil consumption in the power sector reached its lowest ever level. By the end of 2018, gas-fired capacity will be mostly made of combined cycle facilities, which have become more efficient during the last decade.
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