By Stephen Huba

April 5, 2019 - Pennsylvania was the largest net exporter of electricity in the United States from 2013-17, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station in South Huntingdon, which came online in December and generates 940 megawatts of electricity for the PJM Interconnection market. 

California was the largest net importer during the same time period.

The EIA said Pennsylvania sent an annual average of 59 million megawatt hours of electricity to other states — and to a lesser degree, Canada and Mexico.

Pennsylvania’s wealth of energy fuel resources helps explain its status as the top electricity exporter in the Lower 48, the EIA said:

• Pennsylvania’s gross natural gas production, primarily from the Marcellus Shale, reached nearly 5.5 trillion cubic feet in 2017.

• Pennsylvania was the nation’s second-largest natural gas producer in 2017, after Texas.

• Pennsylvania was the third-largest coal-producing state in the nation in 2017 and the only state mining anthracite, which has a higher heat value than other types of coal.

• In 2017, Pennsylvania ranked second in the nation in electricity generation from nuclear power, which supplied 42% of the state’s net electricity generation — more than from any other energy source.

• About 51% of Pennsylvania households use natural gas as their primary home heating fuel, while 22% rely on electricity, 17% use fuel oil, 4% use propane and nearly 3% burn wood.

• The Appalachian region — Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia (Marcellus and Utica shales) — remained the largest natural gas-producing region in the United States in 2018.