Section 9. Energy Prices - Statistical Data Included

Monthly Energy Review, Sept, 2000

6. Starting in January 1983, Form EIA-782, "Monthly Petroleum Product Sales Report," replaced 10 previous surveys. Every attempt was made to continue the most important price series. However, prices published through December 1982 and those published since January 1983 do not necessarily form continuous data series due to changes in survey forms, definitions, instructions, populations, samples, processing systems, and statistical procedures. To provide historical data, continuous series were generated for annual data 1978-1982 and for monthly data 1981 and 1982 by estimating the prices that would have been published had Form EIA-782 survey and system been in operation at that time. This form of estimation was performed after detailed adjustment was made for product and sales type matching and for discontinuity due to other factors. An important difference between the previous and present prices is the distinction between wholesale and resale and between retail and end user. The resale category continues to sales among resellers. However, sales to bulk consumers, such as utility, industrial, and commercial accounts previously included in the wholesale category are now counted as made to end users. The end-user category continues to include retail sales through company owned and operated outlets but also includes sales to the bulk consumers such as agriculture, industry, and electric utilities. Additional information may be found in "Estimated Historic Time Series for the EIA-782," a feature article reprinted from the December 1983 [3] Petroleum Marketing Monthly, published by EIA.

7. Preliminary monthly data are based on submissions from over 250 publicly and privately owned electric utilities reporting on Form EIA-826, "Monthly Electric Utility Sales and Revenue Report with State Distributions." These utilities are statistically chosen as a cutoff sample from more than 3,000 electric utilities that report annually on Form EIA-861, "Annual Electric Utility Report." Preliminary annual values are the sum of the monthly revenues divided by the sum of the monthly sales. When final Form EIA-861 annual data become available each year, their ratios to the preliminary Form EIA-826 values are used to derive adjusted final monthly values. Prior to January 1986, only privately owned electric utilities were included in the monthly survey and the sample was chosen using stratification techniques through December 1992.

8. Data for 1973-1982 cover all electric generating plants at which the generator nameplate capacity of all steam-electric units combined totaled 25 megawatts or greater. From 1974-1982, peaking units were included in the data and counted towards the 25-megawatt-or-greater total. Data for 1983-1990 cover all electric generating plants at which the generator nameplate capacity of all steam-electric units combined totaled 50 megawatts or greater. Data for 1991 forward cover all electric generating plants at which the generator nameplate capacity of all steam-electric units and combined-cycle units together totaled 50 megawatts or greater.