Nuclear Power Capacity Factor Rising But Not Quickly

Nuclear power reactors are returning to service, but they will need to ramp up quickly starting tomorrow if they are to close the near 1 BCFE gap with May 2016:

MISO Natural Gas Power Burn Loses Ground to Coal

So far in May, gas is taking a 28-38% market share against coal's 62-72% of thermal generation.  Unfortunately the curve is steeper than last May also, so gas takes a lower share of lower load days, and load has been light.  To make matters a little worse, a temporary opportunity to increase thermal output due to nuclear outages will go away soon.  

Another Giant Leap Forward for ERCOT Wind Power Generation

ERCOT released its Demand and Energy Report for April 2017 this week, and wind power posted another record, up 47% over last April, and within 25% of both Natural Gas and Coal in total generation.  It averaged about 9 GW for the month:

Meanwhile, natural gas lost market share to coal in ERCOT:

Texas Oil and Gas Well Permitting Activity Declines in April

Despite relentless increases in rig counts, Texas RRC reporting a decline in well permitting in April.

Combination Oil/Gas well permits declined from 893 in March to 576 in April.
Oil well permits declined from 284 to 223.
Gas well permits declined from 56 to 55.

Nuclear Power Output Lagging 2016 by 1 BCFE

As the maintenance and refueling season approaches an inflection point this week, output from reactors is currently about 1 BCF-gas-equivalent  below last year.  As the graph indicates, reactors were rapidly returning to service in May 2016.  The same directional trend is evident this year, month-to-date.