U.S. Energy Information Administration Independent Statistics & Analysis www.eia.gov

A glimpse into the “Electricity Initiative” 

at the U.S. Energy Information 

Administration

For

GASP 2019

September 23, 2019 | Washington, DC

By

Greg Lawson, Operations Research Analyst

April Lee, Industry Economist
Overview

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 2

I. EIA’s Electricity Initiative

II. Electricity market basics

a) RTOs (Regional Transmission Organizations)

b) ISOs (Independent System Operators)

c) LMPs (Locational Marginal Prices)

III. Project progress and hurdles

IV. Example of future analysis possibilities
EIA

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 3

• Federal Statistical Agency within the Department of Energy, 

independent and policy-neutral by charter (only one political 

appointee) 

• World-class energy statistics, primarily from surveys, as well 

as projections forward under assumed policy scenarios

• Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report is a “Principal Economic 

Indicator”

https://www.eia.gov/
Electricity Initiative

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 4

• EIA’s administrator, Linda Capuano, has announced an 

“Electricity Initiative” as one of her key priorities 

• Extant data offerings are strong, but EIA seeks to expand the 

offering by covering wholesale electricity markets, the 

engines by which supply and demand are ultimately met and 

by which local prices of electricity are set 

– N.B., wholesale prices are different than retail prices, which residential 

consumers often pay to their utilities

• About 2/3 of the U.S. have structured, coordinated wholesale 

electricity markets, referred to as either “ISOs” or “RTOs”

– Independent System Operators

– Regional Transmission Organizations
RTOs & ISOs 

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 5

• All of these RTOs

& ISOs make 

troves of data 

public

• Instead of creating

a new survey to 

collect this data, 

EIA proposes to 

begin its Electricity

Initiative by first

collecting the 

publicly available 

data

https://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/rto/elec-ovr-rto-map.pdf
Value Proposition: Collocation & 

Demystification

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 6

• 7 different U.S. RTO/ISOs means 7 different data providers, 

each with its own formatting, conventions, definitions

Subtly, ISO/RTO data are not quite apples-to-apples

• Housing the most salient public information in one location at 

EIA will:

– Increase ease of access and use for most EIA stakeholders

– Provide a “curated” data offering for the non-expert

– Allow for naturally interleaved educational material and explainers

– House data alongside valuable, complementary datasets, like EIA’s 930 survey 

of hourly data from Balancing Authorities, including generation by fuel, demand, 

and interchange
Example: Locational Marginal Prices

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 7

• Wholesale prices are cited as LMPs (“Locational Marginal 

Prices”)

– “Price” --- values are in US Dollars per MW of power purchased for delivery

– “Marginal” --- the intersection of supply and demand sets the price of power

• Supply offers: generating units offer into the market how much power they 

would be willing to generate at what price

• Demand bids: consumers bid into the market how much power they 

expect to need and at what price point(s) their demand might change

• Marginal unit: if all supply offers are ranked by their offer price, then the 

generating unit that supplies the final demanded MW of power is the 

marginal unit, and its cost sets the cost that all generators will get paid for 

their power 

– “Locational” --- prices vary geographically based on the network topology of 

suppliers and consumers and how congestion and losses will affect the ability 

to deliver power
Technical Approach

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 8

RTO/ISO

Data Providers

EIA DMZ Server EIA Internal Servers

RTO Portal

Customers

Data

Capture

Virus

Scan

Publish

Validate &

Process

Reject

Bad

Project Internal

Database

eia.gov

Database
Technical Approach

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 9

RTO/ISO

Data Providers

EIA DMZ Server EIA Internal Servers

RTO Portal

Customers

Data

Capture

Virus

Scan

Publish

Validate &

Process

Reject

Bad

Project Internal

Database

eia.gov

Database

Python used to poll data 

providers and access APIs 

or download raw files
Technical Approach

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 10

RTO/ISO

Data Providers

EIA DMZ Server EIA Internal Servers

RTO Portal

Customers

Data

Capture

Virus

Scan

Publish

Validate &

Process

Reject

Bad

Project Internal

Database

eia.gov

Database

Python or SAS used to 

parse & validate data and 

wrangle into storage form
Progress and Hurdles

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 11

• Progress has been forward, but we are trying to accelerate...

• Hurdles:

– Coding: scraping public data is a different mode than what EIA typically does 

with its survey collections, so devising robust, operational code requires care

• Operational mode to keep up-to-date

• Historical mode to back-fill archives

– Republishing rights: All RTOs/ISOs have warnings about trying to republish 

their data, so those rights need to be established, which takes time

– Front-end display: EIA’s website has high standards for its display, 

dissemination, and interactivity, and these standards demand material 

development time to deliver a new product
Future Analysis...

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 12

• Once the data is housed at EIA and able to be disseminated, 

then further analysis will be possible into the following types 

of problems, without leaving the EIA website

• Other useful data and content to be added:

• Weather • Capacity markets

• Fuel supply & prices • Ancillary services

• Demand response • Market rules

• Renewable penetration • ...
Texas Wind Power

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 13

• Wind power is plentiful 

in TX

• Generation is often far 

from load centers

• Transmission can get 

congested, leading to 

negative power prices 

near generating units

• Balance of supply and

demand depends on 

accurate wind power

expectations https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=TX
ERCOT: Wholesale Price Spike (6/7/2019)

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 14

$0.00

$100.00

$200.00

$300.00

$400.00

$500.00

$600.00

$700.00

 -

 2,000

 4,000

 6,000

 8,000

 10,000

 12,000

 14,000

6/7/19 0:00 6/7/19 6:00 6/7/19 12:00 6/7/19 18:00 6/8/19 0:00 6/8/19 6:00 6/8/19 12:00 6/8/19 18:00 6/9/19 0:00

US$/Megawatt-hour

Megawatts

ERCOT Hourly wind generation & 15-minute Real-Time Market prices

Wind Actual

Wind Projected

RTM-15 price

$0.00

$100.00

$200.00

$300.00

$400.00

$500.00

$600.00

$700.00

 -

 10,000

 20,000

 30,000

 40,000

 50,000

 60,000

 70,000

6/7/19 0:00 6/7/19 6:00 6/7/19 12:00 6/7/19 18:00 6/8/19 0:00 6/8/19 6:00 6/8/19 12:00 6/8/19 18:00 6/9/19 0:00

ERCOT Hourly load & 15-minute Real-Time Market prices

US$/Megawatt-hour

Megawatts

Actual Load

RTM-15 price
ERCOT: Wholesale Price Spike (6/7/2019)

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 15

Friday 6/7/19 Saturday 6/8/19

peak demand period peak demand period

$0

$200

$400

$600

$800

0:00 0:00 0:00

$/MWh

15-minute real-time 

wholesale electricity price

Actual minus projected 

wind generation

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

0:00 0:00 0:00

Megawatts (MW)

Hourly demand

Hourly wind generation 

projected 

actual

-2,000

0

2,000

0:00 0:00 0:00
Summary

Greg Lawson, GASP 2019, 

Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 16

• RTO/ISO data is a key piece of the Electric Industry

• The “RTO/Wholesale Power Portal” project will bring these 

data to EIA’s collection of world-class data and statistics

• Work is advancing...

• Analytical capabilities will be increased without needing to 

leave EIA’s site