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Form EIA-861M (formerly EIA-826) detailed data

Monthly Release Date: March 27, 2024 for January 2024 data Next Monthly Release: End of April 2024 for February 2024 data Final annual 2022 data released: October 5, 2023

Find detailed data below for:  net metering | small scale PV estimate | sales and revenue | advanced metering | green pricing

Form EIA-861M, Monthly Electric Power Industry Report, collects data from distribution utilities and power marketers of electricity from a statistically chosen sample of electric utilities in the United States. We select the respondents to Form EIA-861M from the larger group of respondents to Form EIA-861, Annual Electric Power Industry Report. Our methodology is based on the Annual Electric Utility Report and the Model-Based Sampling, Inference and Imputation report.

Our survey page contains the current survey form, instructions, respondent portal, and frequently asked questions. Data from these files can be found throughout our publications, usually in aggregated form, in our Electric Power Monthly (EPM) report, Electricity Data Browser, and in some Today in Energy articles. Please refer to our Guide to EIA Electric Power Data and send any questions to InfoElectric@eia.gov.

Prior to February 2017, this form was originally Form EIA-826.

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Net metering

  • Timeframe: 2011 to present
  • Description: The data contain the cumulative installation count and capacity of generators that are net metered, by technology, state, and sector. If available, the energy sold back to the grid is also reported. Technology types include photovoltaic (standard, virtual less than 1 megawatt, and virtual 1 megawatt or greater), wind, and other. Storage systems that are paired with net-metered photovoltaic (PV) are also captured.
  • We make a state-level adjustment for capacity of non-respondents of PV systems and to convert state total capacity to AC units for those respondents who report data in DC units. We use 0.8256 as a conversion factor to change DC to AC. For other energy sources, we have not established imputation procedures.
  • Historical Changes: These data have been collected on the annual survey, Form EIA-861, since 2001, before being collected monthly. Starting in December 2015, we began imputing for standard PV capacity. We backdated the data to include 2014 data. In February 2017, we added a question to the survey about whether the megawatts reported for PV systems were in AC or DC units. Also in February 2017, the survey partitioned out PV to include virtual systems and included storage systems paired with PV. Starting in January 2020, we added the short form (Form EIA-861S) respondents to the imputed data.

Non net metering distributed

  • Timeframe: February 2017 to present
  • Description: The data contain cumulative values of generators that are not net metered and under 1 megawatt in size (and not reported on Form EIA-860). Installations, total capacity, capacity owned, and capacity backup are reported in aggregate, by state and sector. Capacity is also reported by technology, state, and sector. Technology types include combustion turbine, internal combustion engine, fuel cells, hydroelectric, photovoltaic (PV), steam turbine, storage, wind, and other. We makes a state-level adjustment for non-respondents of PV systems and to convert state total capacity to AC units for those respondents who report data in DC units. We use 0.8256 as a conversion factor to change DC to AC and use the responses from their net-metering systems. For other energy sources, we have not established imputation procedures.
  • Historical Changes: These data have been collected on the annual survey, Form EIA-861, since 2010, before being collected monthly. Starting in 2020, we included the Form EIA-861S respondents in the imputations.

Small scale PV estimate

  • Timeframe: 2014 to present
  • Description: The data contain capacity (in AC) and estimated generation from PV solar systems less than 1 megawatt in size. The purpose of this threshold is to include PV capacity and generation that is otherwise not collected on Form EIA-860 and Form EIA-923, which collects data from utility-scale electricity -generation systems. Data are created from net-metering and non-net-metering distributed PV data using formulas and adjustments described in the technical notes of the Electric Power Monthly.
  • Historical Changes: Starting in December 2015, we began publishing generation and capacity estimates from small-scale solar installations. We backdated the data to include 2014 data. In 2017, we altered Form EIA-860 form to get more detailed data about net-metered generators, including type and amount of capacity net metered. Starting in 2020, we added Form EIA-861S respondents to the imputations.

Sales and revenue

  • Timeframe: 1990 to present
  • Description: The data contain revenue, sales (in megawatthours), and customer count of bundled service electricity to end-use customers by state and sector.
  • We make a state-level adjustment for non-sampled entities and reported values for power marketers. For non-bundled services, their data are considered protected and not publicly released in the monthly data, although the data can be found in the annual web files. The state-level adjustment is included in the aggregate state-level totals (the total EPM rows in the data files).
  • Historical Changes: In 1999, we added the consumer counts to the survey. In 2003, we created the transportation sector category and removed the other sector. We made this change to separate the transportation sales and reassign the other activities to the commercial and industrial sectors, as appropriate. Non-transportation customers previously reported under the other sector, including for street and highway lighting, and are now included in the commercial sector. Prior years may refer to these data as retail sales or sales and revenue.

Advanced metering

  • Timeframe: 2011 to January 2017
  • Description: The data contain number of meters from automated meter readings (AMR), advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), and standard meters (non AMR/AMI) by state and sector. The energy served (in megawatthours) for AMI systems is provided.
  • Historical Changes: These data have been collected on the annual survey, Form EIA-861, since 2007 and are still collected annually. Standard meters have been collected since June 2014.

Green pricing

  • Download detailed data in XLS and XLSX format
  • Detailed data
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  • April 2014 is the last data month in which EIA collected Green Pricing data.
  • Timeframe: 2011 to April 2014
  • Description: The data contain revenue, sales, and customer count by sector and state.
  • Historical Changes: These data were collected on the annual survey, Form EIA-861, from 2001 through 2012.