U.S. Electricity Generation by Fuel Type and Sector

Annual, quarterly, and monthly data on U.S. electricity generation is provided via an API. The data is organized by fuel types like coal, petroleum, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, solar, geothermal, and wood, and by sectors including electric power, electric utility, commercial, and industrial. It originates from official EIA forms 906, 920, and 923, managed by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Use Cases

• Analyze generation trends for specific fuel types like coal or natural gas across different sectors over time.
• Compare quarterly and monthly electricity output from renewable sources such as wind and solar against conventional sources.
• Model the relationship between sector-level data (e.g., commercial, industrial) and total generation by fuel type.
• Build a dashboard to monitor shifts in the U.S. energy mix using the annual, quarterly, and monthly data granularity.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from official regulatory forms (EIA-906, EIA-920, EIA-923), ensuring a standardized collection method.
• Covers nine distinct fuel types and multiple economic sectors, enabling detailed breakdowns of generation sources.
• Managed and provided by the authoritative U.S. Department of Energy.

Limitations

• The dataset is accessed via API only, requiring programming skills and an API key for use.
• Data freshness is uncertain as the last recorded update was in July 2021.
• Specific data volume metrics like row count and file size are unknown.

Provenance

Source

Department of Energy, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Collection Method

Collected via mandatory industry reporting forms EIA-906, EIA-920, and EIA-923.

Time Range

Annual, quarterly, and monthly data available; specific date range not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2021-07-06; update frequency is not specified.

Geography

United States.