Dive Summary:

• This year's March levels of coal power generation jumped 21 % from last March while gas and renewable energy generation saw a decrease of 11 % and 14 % respectively, according to a report by Genscape’s Generation Fuel Monitoring Service.
• Coal’s relatively stable price compared to the volatile price of gas gave a boost to the coal generation market. This March, the generation of coal-fired power was 53 percent higher than natural-gas fired generation.
• Renewable generation saw a significant decrease due to weakened hydropower output in the Northwest of America facing a decline in snow water.

From the article:
“Genscape states that over the past year, gas prices have risen 60 percent, while coal prices have only risen about 2 percent, causing coal-fired generation in March to be 53 percent higher than natural-gas fired generation. Genscape analyst Stephen Maestranzi said “as gas prices have recently reached $4.00/MMBtu, the economics behind fuel switching are dramatically different than last year.”