Electricity Supply and Disposition Quarterly

Detailed information for first quarter 2002

Status:

Active

Frequency:

Quarterly

Record number:

2194

The Electricity Supply and Disposition Quarterly survey collects data about the supply and disposition of electricity in Canada from utilities and industrial establishments that generate and/or distribute electrical energy in Canada.

Data release - October 2, 2003

Description

The Electricity Supply and Disposition Quarterly survey collects data about the supply and disposition of electricity in Canada from utilities and industrial establishments that generate and/or distribute electrical energy in Canada.

Data are required for integration into the Canadian System of National Accounts. The data are also used in the calculation of equalization payments under the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act). Federal (Natural Resources Canada, Environment Canada) and provincial agencies are also regular users.

Reference period: Quarter

Collection period: Data are collected within 6 months after the reference quarter.

Subjects

  • Energy
  • Energy consumption and disposition
  • Nuclear and electric power

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The universe consists of electric utilities and industrial establishments that generate and/or distribute electricity. Utilities and companies which have at least one plant with a total generating capacity of 500 KW, or one solar plant with a total generating capacity of over 100 KW are included. No threshold applies to distributors of electricity.

The frame is derived from the Electric Power Generating Stations Annual Survey (record number 2193) and from information on inter-provincial transactions in the Electricity Monthly Survey (record number 2151).

Instrument design

The survey questionnaire comprises volumes of electricity generated by utilities and industry, and the volume and value of receipts and deliveries by province, country and ultimate consumer.

The questionnaire is respondent completed. The survey uses two types of questionnaire: the long form (Electricity Supply and Disposition Quarterly) for generating stations that sell to customers, and the short form (Electricity Quarterly) for stations that are mainly transporters of electricity.

The questionnaire was last revised in 1997 based on contacts with respondents and data users.

Sampling

This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.

This methodology does not apply.

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.

New respondents are sent a guide to completing Section 10, Deliveries to Ultimate Customers.

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 same period of the previous year;
- data for the same respondent from the Electricity Monthly Survey (survey number 2151) and the Electric Utility Financial Report Annual (survey number 2001).

Imputation

In most provinces, the response rate for this survey is very high. As a consequence minimal imputation for non-response is required. Imputation for missing data values is rarely required and is done manually.

Missing data on deliveries to ultimate customers are computed based on ratios from the same quarter of the previous year, applied to the volume reported by the respondent in the Electricity Monthly for the current quarter.

In those provinces undergoing electricity restructuring, non-response can temporarily become higher than for other provinces as many new generators come on line. In those cases, imputation for missing data is carried out based on a mix of historical data, ratios based on data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging (Survey ID 2103) and special utilities databases, and trends from respondents.

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 Electric Utility Financial Report Annual (survey number 2001).
- The breakdown by category of Deliveries to Ultimate Customers is compared to information from the Annual Industrial Consumption of Energy Survey (survey number 5047).
- Data on generation and movement are compared to that reported by the respondent in the Monthly Electricity Survey (survey number 2151).

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.

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.

In provinces undergoing restructuring, data quality for some years may be lower during the transition years.

Documentation

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