Following an Order Instituting Rulemaking initiated in October 2005, amendments adopted by the Energy Commission and approved by California's Office of Administrative Law in July 2007 created two articles: Article 1, known as Quarterly Fuel and Energy Report (QFER) directed at current California energy information, and Article 2 directed at the forecast and assessment of energy loads and resources. The regulations under QFER provide for the collection of energy data relating to electric generation, control area exchanges, and natural gas processing and deliveries. The reports are submitted on forms specified by the Energy Commission's executive director.
The statistics presented here are derived from the QFER CEC-1304 Power Plant Owner Reporting Form. The CEC-1304 reporting form collects data from power plants with a total nameplate capacity of 1MW or more that are located within California or within a control area with end users inside California. The information includes gross generation, net generation, fuel use by fuel type for each generator, as well as total electricity consumed on site and electricity sales for the plant as a whole. Power plants with nameplate capacity of 20 megawatts or more also provide environmental information related to water supply and water/wastewater discharge.