Electricity Consumption

Electricity Consumption: The CEC calculates electricity consumption as the sum of electricity retail sales, non-retail consumption, and self-generation.

End user: A firm or individual that purchases products for its own consumption and not for resale.

Gigawatt-Hour (GWh): Unit of energy that represents one billion watt-hours and is equal to one million kilowatt-hours.

Load-serving entity (LSE): Any company that (a) sells or provides electricity to end users located in California, or (b) generates electricity at one site and consumes electricity at another site that is in California and that is owned or controlled by the company. LSE does not include the owner or operator of a cogenerator.

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS): For information about NAICS, visit NAICS webpage.

Planning Area: A geographic area developed by CEC staff, based on utility service territories and California’s electricity balancing authority areas, for use in the California Energy Demand Forecast.

Quarterly Fuel and Energy Report (QFER): The regulations under QFER involve the collection of energy data related to electricity and natural gas consumption. QFER reports are submitted on forms specified by the Energy Commission’s executive director.

Retail sales: An amount of electricity delivered from the grid and consumed by the customer. This may include electricity acquired from outside sources, such as electricity generated outside of California’s borders that were imported.

Rural Electric Cooperatives (REC): Consumer-owned utilities that were established to provide reliable and affordable electricity by purchasing electric power at wholesale and delivering it directly to the consumer.

Sales to end users:  Utility company purchases, transports, and direct sales to customers of the product.

Self-generation: Electricity produced on-site by the customer, such as electricity from photovoltaic (PV) panels that cover parking lot roofs. Self-generation only counts toward total consumption and not toward total sales.

Transmission access charge (TAC): Portion of the California ISO-controlled grid where transmission revenue requirements are recovered through an access charge. 

Utility distribution company (UDC): Electric utility or subsidiary of an electric utility that distributes electricity to customers.

Agency Types:

Investor- owned utility (IOU): Large electric distributors that issue stock owned by shareholders. Almost three-quarters of utility customers get their electricity from these companies. IOUs are regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Publicly owned utility (POU): Publicly- owned utilities are not-for-profit agencies that supply and deliver electricity to their communities. POUs are either run municipally or as political subdivisions.  

Western Area Power Administration (WAPA): One of four power marketing administrations within the U.S. Department of Energy whose role is to market and transmit wholesale electricity from multi-use water projects.   

Energy Use Sectors

Agricultural and water pumping: Electricity or Natural Gas used for crop farming fisheries, forestry, poultry production, water supply and irrigation activities.  

Commercial Other or TCU (Transportation, Communications, & Utilities): Energy used to support transportation, communications, and utilities such as power generation and distribution.

Commercial Sector: Electricity or Natural Gas used for nonmanufacturing establishments primarily engaged in the sale of goods or services such as hotels, schools/colleges, offices, restaurants, wholesale, warehouse, healthcare, retail stores and other service enterprises.

Energy Use Sectors:  A group of major energy-consuming components. The sectors most commonly referred to at the CEC are residential, commercial, industrial, mining agricultural and water pumping, and Commercial Other or TCU (Transportation, Communications, & Utilities).

Industrial Sector: Electricity or Natural Gas used for industrial activities including the manufacture of goods, printing, publishing, machinery, iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, chemical and mineral products.

Mining Sector: Electricity or Natural Gas used for activities such as oil and gas extractions, and other mineral extractions, coal, metal and nonmetal mining, construction.

Residential Sector: Electricity or Natural Gas used in private dwellings, including apartments, for heating, air-conditioning, cooking, water heating, and another household uses.

Information
This dashboard provides the amount of electricity delivered by UDCs to end-use customers. Utilities classify customers with six-digit NAICS codes. As of 2024, UDCs submitting data to the CEC include six IOUs, 43 POUs, four rural electric companies, two joint utility agencies, and WAPA (Western Area Power Agency). IOUs are regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and are UDCs that are also known as electrical corporations. POUs are publicly owned, either municipally or as political subdivisions. 

Data last updated: September 5, 2025

Data Collection Information
The Data Collection and Analysis Unit analyzes data from the QFER CEC-1306A Schedule 1 form. Form CEC-1306 is collected from energy companies that provide services in California. It includes information on energy retail sales and delivery amounts by California's residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural customers.

QFER Consumption staff compiles total electricity consumption figures from various data sources using tools like Snowflake, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, and others. Total electricity consumption has two components: (A) validated QFER CEC-1306A Schedule 1 data* and (B) self-generation. Staff receive an aggregated self-generation dataset from demand forecasting staff and then combine it with validated retail sales data during later data processing steps.

CEC-1306A Schedule 1 data consists of:

• Electricity retail sales that are net of photovoltaic (PV) generation
• Non-retail sales data from the following entities. Consumption from these entities only contributes to total consumption figures, not total sales.
  • Department of Water Resources
  • Calaveras Joint Powers Authority
  • Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
  • Tuolumne Joint Powers Authority
  • United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) Central Valley Project

Self-generation data is sourced from:

• Self-generation data from Quarter Fuel and Energy Report (QFER) Forms 1304A and 1304B
• California Public Utility Commission's Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP)

* The definition of electricity retail sales varies between programs and agencies. Retail sales are derived from QFER CEC-1306A Schedule 1 reports, which includes pumping load and POU street light activity. This data should not be used to measure statewide progress toward California’s clean energy goals.

Citing
Please cite use of these data and images. California Energy Commission [Year]. California Energy Commission [Dashboard Title] Data last updated [insert date last updated]. Retrieved [insert date retrieved] from [Dashboard URL]