The California Electricity Consumption dashboard illustrates the state’s historical electricity consumption by agency, sector, and county level. Data is sourced from Quarterly Fuel and Energy Reports (QFER) California Energy Commission (CEC) Form 1306A Schedule 1, which requires utility distribution companies (UDCs) to report the quantity of electricity delivered monthly to end-use customers and self-generation data. Electricity consumption data and information is further used in analyzing electricity demand for local planning and California’s energy demand forecasts. Electricity consumption data is collected quarterly under the authority of the California Code of Regulations, Title 20, Section 1306(a).

Annual statewide electricity consumption is available to explore by sector, agency, and county. Each sector consists of several categories determined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Some forecast models, such as agriculture, water pumping, commercial building, “transportation, communications, & utilities” (TCU), industrial, and mining-are based on sector-level data subdivided by NAICS categories. NAICS categories consist of census defined NAICS subsectors and Energy Commission defined category codes. Data featured in this dashboard was previously made available via the California Energy Consumption Database Management (ECDMS).

Dashboard is best viewed from a computer.  Visit Tableau for the full page layout of dashboard or download data, or return to dashboard collection page.

Other Dashboards in this Collection:
Electricity Consumption Dashboard | Natural Gas Consumption Dashboard

Electricity Consumption: The CEC calculates electricity consumption as the sum of retail sales 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 and consumed on-site by the customer (for example, parking lot roofs covered with photovoltaic (PV) panels). Self-generation only contributes to total consumption and not to 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 consumed by UDCs to end-use customers. Utilities classify customers with six-digit NAICS codes. As of 2023, UDCs that submit data to the CEC include six IOUs, 48 POUs, and four rural electric companies. 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: November 1st, 2023

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

QFER staff prepares total electricity consumption information from various data sources using Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, and other tools. Total electricity consumption has two components: (A) validated QFER retail sales data and (B) self-generation. QFER staff receives an aggregated version of the self-generation data from the Demand Forecasting Unit. QFER staff combines self-generation with validated retail sales data in the later stages of data processing.

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]

Contact

Energy Assessments Division, Data Collection and Analysis Unit
QFERDemand@energy.ca.gov