The United States Energy Information Administration said that “The drag on industrial retail sales of electricity as a result of the ongoing recession is expected to decrease total electricity consumption by 0.8% in 2009.”

It said that “Consumption is projected to return to a more normal growth rate of 1.5% in 2010.”

EIA said that “The increased cost of constructing new generation and transmission facilities has led to rising residential retail electricity prices despite lower power generation fuel costs. As a result, residential electricity prices are projected to increase by 4.4% in 2009. The lower fuel costs are expected to be passed through to consumers later in the year, slowing growth in 2010 residential retail prices to 1.9%.

EIA’s preliminary estimates indicate that power generation by natural gas fired plants increased by nearly 3% in February 2009 from the same month last year while coal generation fell by about 14%. This change in the relative generation fuel mix may be a response to the converging generation costs for coal and natural gas. A similar pattern is expected to continue during the rest of 2009 with natural gas generation increasing by 2.9% and coal generation falling by 2.8%.