Electric Utility Financial Report Annual (AEUF)

Detailed information for 2004

The survey collects financial data from electric utilities in Canada.

The information is used as input to the Canadian System of National Accounts. Federal (National Energy Board) and provincial agencies are also provided with data on a regular basis.

Data release - March 23, 2006

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The survey collects financial data from electric utilities in Canada.

The information is used as input to the Canadian System of National Accounts. Federal (National Energy Board) and provincial agencies are also provided with data on a regular basis.

Reference period: Calendar year

Subjects

• Business performance and ownership
• Energy
• Financial statements and performance
• Nuclear and electric power

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The universe consists of all electric utilities in Canada with revenues from the sale of electricity of $5 million or more, or with revenues from interprovincial trade in electricity. The frame is derived from revenue data reported in the Electricity Supply and Disposition Annual Survey (survey number 2194).

Instrument design

The survey questionnaire comprises a balance sheet of assets with liabilities and equity. Also reported are direct taxes, employees, wages and salaries, and an account of operating revenues and expenses.

The questionnaire is respondent completed.

The questionnaire was last modified in 1983 based on contacts with respondents and data users.

Sampling

This survey is a census.

Data are collected for all units of the target population, therefore, no sampling is done.

Data sources

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

The data is collected through a mail-out /mail-back process. Follow-ups are conducted by phone, fax or e-mail as needed.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .

Error detection

Methods of error detection include a comparison of data for the respondent with:

- data for the same respondent from the previous year;
- revenue data for the company from the Electricity Supply and Disposition Annual Survey (survey number 2194).

Imputation

The response rate for this survey is very high. If revenue and cost data are missing then the information is taken from other electricity surveys, if available. If not available, imputation is done on a manual basis using a ratio based on previous year's data. The results are confronted and validated against other sources such as company annual reports.

Estimation

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Quality evaluation

The quality of the data to be released is evaluated in the following ways:

- Revenues from the sale of electricity are compared with those reported by the respondent in the Electricity Supply and Disposition Annual Survey (survey number 2194).

- Company data from the survey is compared with the annual report of the company.

- On an aggregate level, employment data are compared with data from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (survey number 2612).

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Confidentiality analysis includes the detection of possible direct disclosure, which occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of a few respondents or when the cell is dominated by a few companies.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

If data are reported on a fiscal year basis that extends beyond the calendar year, the data are adjusted manually using financial data in the company's report to the Electricity Supply and Disposition Annual Survey (survey number 2194).

Data accuracy

Since the survey is a census of the target population, there is no sampling error. Given the very high response rate and the error detections based on other sources, non-sampling errors are reduced.