EIA Form 861 – Annual Electric Power Industry Report

Source URL	https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia861
Source Description	EIA Form 861 Annual Electric Power Industry Report, detailed data files.
Source Years	1990-2021
Download Size	82 MB
Years Liberated	2001-2021
PUDL Code	eia861
Issues	Open EIA Form 861 – Annual Electric Power Industry Report issues

PUDL Database Tables

We’ve segmented the processed data into the following normalized data tables. Clicking on the links will show you a description of the table as well as the names and descriptions of each of its fields.

Data Dictionary	Browse Online
advanced_metering_infrastructure_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/advanced_metering_infrastructure_eia861
balancing_authority_assn_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/balancing_authority_assn_eia861
balancing_authority_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/balancing_authority_eia861
demand_response_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/demand_response_eia861
demand_response_water_heater_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/demand_response_water_heater_eia861
demand_side_management_ee_dr_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/demand_side_management_ee_dr_eia861
demand_side_management_misc_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/demand_side_management_misc_eia861
demand_side_management_sales_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/demand_side_management_sales_eia861
distributed_generation_fuel_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/distributed_generation_fuel_eia861
distributed_generation_misc_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/distributed_generation_misc_eia861
distributed_generation_tech_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/distributed_generation_tech_eia861
distribution_systems_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/distribution_systems_eia861
dynamic_pricing_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/dynamic_pricing_eia861
energy_efficiency_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/energy_efficiency_eia861
green_pricing_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/green_pricing_eia861
mergers_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/mergers_eia861
net_metering_customer_fuel_class_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/net_metering_customer_fuel_class_eia861
net_metering_misc_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/net_metering_misc_eia861
non_net_metering_customer_fuel_class_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/non_net_metering_customer_fuel_class_eia861
non_net_metering_misc_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/non_net_metering_misc_eia861
operational_data_misc_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/operational_data_misc_eia861
operational_data_revenue_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/operational_data_revenue_eia861
reliability_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/reliability_eia861
sales_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/sales_eia861
service_territory_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/service_territory_eia861
utility_assn_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/utility_assn_eia861
utility_data_misc_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/utility_data_misc_eia861
utility_data_nerc_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/utility_data_nerc_eia861
utility_data_rto_eia861	https://data.catalyst.coop/pudl/utility_data_rto_eia861

Background

EIA Form EIA-861 (and the short form EIA-861S) make up the Annual Electric Power Industry Report, collecting data from distribution utilities and power marketers. It is a census of all United States electric utilities. As of 2023 PUDL only incorporates the annual data, but there’s also a less detailed monthly Form EIA-861M.

There are more than 20 different spreadsheets included in the annual zipfiles. For details, see the official EIA-861 page

Download the following files for further context:

• Eia861 Instructions 2013-10-31 (PDF)

• Eia861 Instructions 2015-12-31 (PDF)

• Eia861 Instructions 2017-05-31 (PDF)

• Eia861 Instructions 2020-03-31 (PDF)

• Eia861 Instructions 2023-05-31 (PDF)

How much of the data is accessible through PUDL?

Who is required to fill out the form?

What does the original data look like?

Notable Irregularities

• In 2012-2013 the EIA-861 was overhauled. Several tables were discontinued, and many more were added. Similar kinds of information reported in the two regimes may not be directly comparable.

• Most of the EIA-861 data that’s available in the PUDL DB has not yet been fully normalized, meaning it contains many duplicate copies of the same information, which may not always be internally consistent.

• We also have not yet integrated the Balancing Authority and Utility IDs reported in the EIA-861 into our entity tables, so for the moment we don’t have any foreign key constraints enabled on the EIA-861 tables.

PUDL Data Transformations

The PUDL transformation process cleans the input data so that it is adjusted for uniformity, corrected for errors, and ready for bulk programmatic use.

To see the transformations applied to the data in each table, you can read the doc-strings for pudl.transform.eia861 created for each tables’ respective transform function.