U.S. electricity demand fell 4.2 percent last year, the largest drop in 60 years

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U.S. electricity demand fell 4.2 percent last year, the largest drop in 60 years, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

In the agency’s “State of the Markets Report 2009,” only three of the 11 recessions in the past 60 years have resulted in a drop in electric demand, and officials said in the report “falling power demand is rare.”

A steep decline in the industrial sector was blamed for some of the change along with relatively mild summers. In the residential and commercial sectors, though, demand also slid 1 percent, according to the federal regulator’s report.

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