Energy Consumption by Sector

Most of the data in this section of the Monthly Energy Review (MER) are developed from a group of energy-related surveys, typically called "supply surveys," conducted by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Supply surveys are directed to suppliers and marketers of specific energy sources. They measure the quantities of specific energy sources produced, or the quantities supplied to the market, or both. The data obtained from EIA's supply surveys are integrated to yield the summary consumption statistics published in this section (and in Section 1) of the MER.

Users of EIA's energy consumption statistics should be aware of a second group of energy-related surveys, typically called "consumption surveys." Consumption surveys gather information on the types of energy consumed by end users of energy, along with the characteristics of those end users that can be associated with energy use. For example, the Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey belongs to the consumption survey group because it collects information directly from end users (the manufacturing establishments). There are important differences between the supply and consumption surveys that need to be taken into account in any analysis that uses both data sources. For information on those differences, see Energy Consumption by End-Use Sector, A Comparison of Measures by Consumption and Supply Surveys, DOE/EIA-0533, Energy Information Administration, Washington, DC, April 6, 1990.

Note 1. Energy Consumption:

Primary Consumption: Consumption in the five energyuse sectors (residential, commercial, industrial, transportation, and electric power) consists of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and petroleum), some secondary energy derived from fossil fuels (supplemental gaseous fuels and coal coke net imports), nuclear electric power, renewable energy, and net imports of electricity. Renewable energy consumption is the end-use consumption of wood, waste, alcohol fuels, geothermal heat pump and direct use energy, and solar thermal direct use and photovoltaic energy; and net electricity generation from conventional hydroelectric power, wood, waste, geothermal, solar, and wind.

Total Consumption: In addition to primary consumption in the four end-use sectors (residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation), total consumption also includes retail sales of electricity and electrical system energy losses (see Note 11).

Note 2. Energy-Use Sectors: The five major economic sectors-residential, commercial, industrial, transportation, and electric power-are called energy-use sectors in this report. The first four sectors comprise the end-use sectors, that is,...