Survey Forms


Electricity and Renewable (Photovoltaic) Survey Form Changes Proposed for 2014

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is proposing changes to its electricity data collection in 2014. These changes involve the following surveys:

  • Form EIA-63B, “Annual Photovoltaic Cell/Module Shipments Report,”
  • Form EIA-411, “Coordinated Bulk Power Supply Program Report,”
  • Form EIA-826, “Monthly Electric Utility Sales and Revenue Report with State Distributions,”
  • Form EIA-860, “Annual Electric Generator Report,”
  • Form EIA-860M, “Monthly Update to the Annual Electric Generator Report,”
  • Form EIA-861, “Annual Electric Power Industry Report,”
  • Form EIA-861S, “Annual Electric Power Industry Report (Short Form),” and
  • Form EIA-923, “Power Plant Operations Report.”
  • The addition of a new form, the Form EIA-930, “Balancing Authority Operations Report”

The proposals have been announced to the public via a Federal Register Notice published March 6, 2013. Comments regarding this proposed information collection must be received on or before May 6, 2013. Send comments to Rebecca Peterson and, to ensure receipt of the comments by the due date, email is recommended (ERS2014@eia.gov). Comments may also be submitted via mail to U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Energy Information Administration, EI-23, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585, Attention: Rebecca Peterson. If you anticipate difficulty in submitting comments by May 6, 2013, contact Ms. Peterson as soon as possible. Requests for additional information should be directed to Ms. Peterson at the email address listed above. Alternatively, Ms. Peterson may be contacted on (202) 586-4509.

An overview of the proposed changes to the surveys follows below. For additional information, see the Federal Register Notice and the drafts of the revised forms:

Overview of Proposal

The electricity surveys collect data from entities involved in the production, transmission, delivery, and sale of electricity, and in maintaining the reliable operation of the power system. The data collected are the primary source of information on the nation's electric power industry. In addition to routine survey approval, this clearance proposes to modify the surveys, including the collection of enhanced data on power system reliability, operations, environmental performance, and energy efficiency and demand response programs. The proposal also eliminates questions where the data is neither no longer needed or cannot be accurately or cost-effectively collected. A new survey, the EIA-930, is proposed to collect hourly information on the operation of the power system, a topic of growing interest due to the impact of renewable power plants and demand response programs on power system performance.

The EIA-63B survey collects data from companies involved in the photovoltaic industry; e.g. manufacturing, shipping, importing, and exporting. The survey is primary source of information on this energy industry segment. No changes are proposed to this survey. Changes are also proposed to the confidentiality terms of most of the surveys. One change will make information on the individuals who respond to the surveys, such as their personal (business) e-mail address and phone number, sensitive data that will not be released to the public. The second change is a notification that EIA will no longer apply disclosure limitation procedures to the statistical data published based on survey information. There may be some statistics that are based on data from fewer than three respondents, or that are dominated by data from one or two large respondents. In these cases, it may be possible for a knowledgeable person to closely estimate the information reported by a specific respondent. This change will make the data protection procedures applied to the electricity and photovoltaic data consistent with that of other EIA surveys.

Change in respondent burden associated with this clearance is due to the following factors: A correction to past errors in the computation of burden hours for the EIA-860 and EIA-411 surveys; the net effect of adding, removing, and revising questions; an increase in the number of respondents due to growth in the power industry (such as a large number of new solar and wind power plants); the proposed creation of a new survey (EIA-930); and the transfer of the EIA-63B survey to this OMB clearance number.

Previous electricity form changes