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

Energy Records in lieu of Bills and 

Self Reports

Committee on National Statistics – Household Survey Producers Workshop

Eileen O’Brien, Lead, Survey Operations, EIA

June 1, 2011| Washington, DC

Optimizing data utility, quality and burden in the 

Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS)
Overview

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 2

• What is RECS? 

• Challenges in capturing energy use and expenditures

• Using administrative records to reduce burden, improve 

quality

• Looking ahead
RECS is a national, periodic survey that 

collects data about...

3

• Energy-related structural characteristics of housing units 

occupied as a primary residence

– Measured square footage, roof and exterior wall type, windows/types...

• Appliances, equipment and electronics

– HVAC and other equipment, home appliances, home electronics...

• Household demographics, energy usage behavior, and 

participation in energy-related programs

– Weatherization, rebates, tax credits, loans, incentives, energy assistance...

• Fuels used, energy consumption and expenditures

– 5 major fuels, wood, solar, other. How much, how used?

– Who pays? How much?

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011
Role of RECS

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Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 4

• Supports analysis of current and long term U.S. energy 

demand within the United States

• Produces estimates of fuel sources, amounts, energy costs 

and uses within occupied housing units for a calendar year

• Up to 3 surveys per housing unit capture this information

– RECS Household Survey

– RECS Rental Agent Survey

– RECS Energy Supplier Survey
Key features of RECS Design

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 5

Household “Rental Agent” Energy Supplier

Sample, Frame Area, DSF Network sample Network sample

Sample size 18000 addresses

12000 completes

944 spawned

584 completes

1500 energy suppliers

20000 records

Eligibility Occupied HU energy costs 

included in rent

Sells or delivers energy 

(or both) to HU

Respondent Adult occupant Knowledgeable

 ̳agent‘

Varies by size, type of 

supplier & mode

Authority Voluntary Voluntary Mandatory

Primary mode In-person In-person or phone Web portal, mixed form

Instrument 200+ questions Only major energy 

characteristics

Cons., exp., beg/end 

dates of billing periods

Reference period Calendar year (CY) Current 16-20 months incl. CY

Time Burden 45-55 min. 15 min./form 30 min./form (??)

Response Rate 80% 63% Supplier > 90%

Household > 85%
Challenges in collecting energy data

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 6

• RECS‘ reporting period is too long for household respondents 

to rely on memory, rules of thumb or bills (12-20 mos.)

• Respondents don‘t understand bill content (Payne, 2000)

• Efforts to improve bill comprehension are mixed even for 

savvier respondents (Payne, 1996)

• Knowledge and capacity to use bills is declining

– Electronic bills are increasing – less interaction and encoding 

– Automatic bill pay –they never see the content
Using energy bills call for some expertise

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 7

• Requires complex decoding and concept mapping skills

– Bills include special charges that aren‘t in-scope for RECS

– Numerous variations in terms for charges that are included*

• May be necessary to disaggregate bill content

– For example, multiple bills included within a bill, e.g., electricity and gas

– Non energy data included, e.g., municipal water

• Bills include adjustments to previous/current charges

– Late fees, repayment plans, flat fees not tied to consumption, e.g., outdoor 

lights...

–  ̳Levelized‘ billing...

* See last page of this handout for list of charges found on just 117 bills.
Bills alone won‘t work; content falls short.

8

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011

Issue Number of bills

No account history on entire bill 8

Bar graphs ONLY (12-14 mos.) 9

Data for current month to a year ago 6

Data for current to previous month and year 2

Bar graphs and data by month (13 mos.) 2

Consumption data per month (12 mos.) 1

In RECS 2005, a random sample of 113 cases yielded 137 respondent bills. 

Only 28 included all pages of a respondent‘s energy bill. Content varied widely.
RECS energy collection is conducted in 

two phases

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 9

(1) In household, collect & scan a bill for each energy supplier

• Respondent reports energy supplier by name/fuel; 

interviewer selects supplier from drop down menu

• At the end of the household interview, Blaise prompts 

interviewer what to scan

– Portable USB scanner; training module addresses interviewer‘s ability here

– Done outside the survey instrument, tied to case management system

– Missing documents are  ̳retrieved‘, monitored in case management system

(2) Collect consumption & expenditures from supplier records

– Provide account number and service address to assist data retrieval
How successful is collecting & scanning?

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 10

• Household measurement worksheet: 10,256 forms (85%)

– 92% of cases where consent to measure was given

• ―Authorization‖ form for supplier records: 11,472 forms (95%)

•  ̳Most recent‘ energy bill: 11,120 bills (56% overall)

Fuel Type Number 

needed

Number 

provided

Percent

Electricity 11,532 6,831 59%

Natural Gas 6,679 3,587 54%

Propane 825 360 44%

Fuel Oil 718 342 48%

19,754 11,120 56%
Most likely to have electricity bill on hand

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 11

Percent by fuel type

Source: RECS 2009 Household & Energy Supplier interview data

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Electricity Natural Gas Fuel Oil LPG 

Missing bill

Have bill
Accessibility of bills limits use in RECS

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 12

Percent by reason*

*Respondent is not explicitly asked. Interviewer field codes reason for not providing a bill.

Source: RECS 2009 Household & Energy Supplier interview data

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Electricity Natural Gas Fuel Oil LPG

other

don't have bill

electronic bill

privacy
Method for collecting data from suppliers

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Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 13

• Account numbers and service addresses are captured from 

scanned bills where possible, sample addresses for the rest

• Pre-contacts by mail to alert, then telephone contact to 

identify key respondent

• Graduated, phased roll-out by fuel to test systems

• Web supports three main response formats: online teleform 

by customer and fuel with built-in edits, downloadable 

standardized spreadsheet, PDF form to print & fax.

• Non-standard formats are accepted, but rarely used
Challenges in RECS methodology

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 14

• Linking sampled address to customer records is tricky

– Which? Sampled address, updates from interview, ―service address‖ on bill?

– Intensive to capture service address & account numbers, critical to use them

– Customer names sometimes useful to suppliers, but not EIA—so, not collected

• Customer privacy concerns growing; suppliers are protective

– Who owns the data? Company policies, Federal, State, & local laws compete

• Two phase collection is costlier, adds time, affects response

• Natural state of data are in different form from RECS request

– Billing systems not standardized. Does survey capture standardized data?

– Transforming systems data increases burden to suppliers, adds new error?

– Older data are archived and require different, more intensive retrieval efforts
Value of RECS methodology

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Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 15

• Makes maximum use of respondent‘s minimum knowledge

– Provide supplier name by fuel and bills, which has other useful information: 

service address, account number and some info on cost and fees

• Uses energy suppliers‘ administrative records efficiently

– Easy retrieval by account number

– Much less unit and item nonresponse

– Less nonsampling error

• Allows flexibility in reporting format and mode

– Mode options as well as nonstandard reporting formats

– Some accommodation for privacy concerns: ―Authorization‖ forms

– Rescheduling due dates, 1-800 help number, web FAQs, full access to EIA
Performance

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Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 16

• Response rates on course to be best ever 

– With a month to go 76% household records in; 72% of suppliers have responded 

(large suppliers still working)

• Data quality much improved: 75% coming in  ̳clean‘

• Have addressed all privacy concerns satisfactorily
About 3% of suppliers provide 52% of the records

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Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 17

90%

5% 3% 2.4% 0.3%

21%

13% 14%

36%

16%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

1-19 20-49 50-99 100-499 500+

Suppliers

Records

Number of records requested of suppliers

Percent of suppliers by number of records requested, share of total records requested

Source: RECS 2009 Energy Supplier Survey frame
Lessons we‘ve learned

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Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 18

• Mandatory, yes, but accommodation and support is critical

• How companies are organized is more predictive of mode 

choice when options are available

• Web is good! Cleaner data, legitimacy, timelier, instant 

feedback

• Regulatory environment introduces elevated response 

strategies and privacy & confidentiality concerns

• Asking questions tangential to records system increases 

effort and item nonresponse considerably, ―My job is to 

produce bills‖
Looking ahead

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 19

• Evaluate multimode RECS 2009 approach

• Further reduce burden on suppliers

• Increase household delivery of sample bills

• Understand and manage response errors

– Compare records against bills provided for frame, response errors 

– Tailor questionnaires by replacing generic terms in survey instructions with 

specific terms found in supplier bills

– Pre-assign optimal response mode
For more information

Eileen O‘Brien, “Energy Records“

Washington, DC, June 1, 2011 20

U.S. Energy Information Administration home page | www.eia.gov

RECS and related data | http://www.eia.gov/consumption/residential/

RECS Team

RECS Survey Manager, Chip Berry james.berry@eia.gov

Supplier Survey, Marilyn Worthy marilyn.worthy@eia.gov

Energy & Survey Stats 

Bill McNary william.mcnary@eia.gov

Danni Mayclin danielle.mayclin@eia.gov

Statistical Methods, Dr. Ed Cureg edgardo.cureg@eiagov
O’Brien, 65th AAPOR, May 16, 2010 21