In 1993, coal power plants accounted for 23 percent of electricity generation. Nuclear power contributed 19 percent of the state's electricity in 1993. Note that the primary energy consumption in Washington State does not include fuel used to produce electricity outside the state for utilities that serve Washington State consumers. It does include primary energy consumed in Washington State at power plants owned by utilities that largely serve consumers outside the state. Because the electricity grid throughout the Pacific Northwest and the Western United States is interconnected, viewing electricity generation only in Washington State is a limited perspective.
Wood is used for home heating and as an industrial fuel in Washington State.
Data on wood consumption are not consistently collected. It is difficult to measure wood consumption because the wood supply is widely dispersed, and there is no way to document wood purchases. It is important to recognize that wood use in Washington is significant, and the Washington State Energy Office has made some estimates of wood use. However, because these estimates are of limited duration, not regularly maintained, and less accurate than the energy estimates from the EIA, they are not included in the historical end-use energy tables. The chart shows that the magnitude of wood use was 11 percent of total end-use energy consumption in the state in 1990.