As drillers have faced investor and public pressure to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, they have ditched polluting diesel-power generators and plugged into the grid at breakneck speed. On top of making companies greener, utility-scale power means savings on fuel costs and more efficient operations, oil and gas executives say. But the trend is sending electricity sales soaring in Texas, New Mexico and North Dakota. Like other kinds of businesses trying to electrify, drillers have hit a bottleneck, finding there is only so much capacity on the grid. This includes most 5,000-horsepower fracking pumps companies use to blast underground rock with sand and water.

Source: Wall Street Journal January 29, 2024 13:48 UTC