kitegraph
API access is included on the Professional and Business plans

California electricity from natural gas, 2001 to 2025

Electricity generated from natural gas in California, in gigawatt hours per year, from the EIA. · updated Jul 2026

About this statistic

California electricity from natural gas stood at 73,326 in 2025, down 15.4% on the previous period.

California generated 73,326 gigawatt hours of electricity from natural gas in 2025, down 15.4 percent on the year before. The window runs from 2001, when the figure was 111,932.

How it is measured

The series counts net generation, electricity actually delivered to the grid, from utility-scale plants of one megawatt and larger, across electric utilities, independent producers, and industrial generators. It is collected on the Energy Information Administration's Form EIA-923, the survey behind the Electric Power Monthly, reported as thousands of megawatt hours and shown here as gigawatt hours summed to years. Small-scale rooftop solar is estimated separately and is not included in series like this one.

What the curve shows

Generation data dates the energy transition more precisely than any announcement: what a grid actually runs on is here, year by year. This line is one of the decliners: from a peak of 120,426 GWh in 2014 to 73,326 now, a fall of 39 percent.

Frequently asked questions
Is this capacity or actual generation?
Actual net generation in gigawatt hours: electricity produced and sent to the grid, not nameplate capacity. A megawatt of solar capacity produces far fewer hours of output than a megawatt of nuclear.
Does this include rooftop solar?
No. The survey covers utility-scale plants of one megawatt and larger; the EIA estimates small-scale rooftop systems in a separate series.
Why sum monthly data to years?
Generation is strongly seasonal, and the annual total reads the structural trend cleanly over that cycle. The monthly rhythm is real but belongs to weather more than to the grid's direction.
Other statistics on this topicAll Policy & society statistics →

Make this chart yours.

Open it in the editor with the data already loaded. Brand it, animate it, embed it.

California electricity from natural gas — Kitegraph