Organisation Financing And Operation Of Publicly Owned Electric Utilities

The Financial Statistics of Major US Investor-Owned Electric Utilities publication presents summary and detailed financial accounting data on the investor-owned electric utilities. The objective of the publication is to provide Federal and State governments, industry, and the general public with current and historical data that can be used for policymaking and decisionmaking purposes related to investor-owned electric utility issues. The Financial Statistics of Major US Investor-Owned Electric Utilities publication provides information about the financial results of operations of investor-owned electric utilities for use by government, industry, electric utilities, financial organizations and educational institutions in energy planning. In the private sector, the readers of this publication are researchers and analysts associated with the financial markets, the policymaking and decisionmaking members of electric utility companies, and economic development organizations. Other organizations that may be interested in the data presented in this publication include manufacturers of electric power equipment and marketing organizations. In the public sector, the readers of this publication include analysts, researchers, statisticians, and other professionals engaged in regulatory, policy, and program areas. These individuals are generally associated with the Congress, other legislative bodies, State public utility commissions, universities, and national strategic planning organizations.

This publication, issued annually since 1946, presents financial and operating information about publicly owned electric utilities in the United States. The statistics presented in this publication are compiled from data taken from the annual reports filed by the utilities with the Energy Information Administration on Form ERA -412, Annual Report of Municipal Electric Utilities with Annual Revenues of $250,000 or more. Publicly owned' refers to electric utilities operated by municipalities. The Department of Energy Organization Act defines the term municipality as 'a city, county, irrigation district, drainage district, or other political subdivision or agency of a State competent under the laws thereof to carry on the business of developing, transmitting, or distributing power. Part 141.7 of the regulation under The Federal Power Act, CFR 18, p. 550, incorporated into the Department of Energy Organization Act, stales that the form of annual report for municipal electric utilities having electric operating revenues of $250,000 or more shall be ERA Form No.412. It should be noted that the Act does not require the municipal electric utilities to use the Uniform System of Accounts prescribed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission(FERC).Beginning with 1961, publicly owned utilities filed a simplified version of the previously filed annual report form. This change led to a large increase in the number of municipal utilities filing reports with the FERC. The substantial increase in coverage, from 272 utilities in 1960 to 511utilities in 1975, disrupted the year-to-year comparability of summary data. The lack of consistency and completeness in reporting by some of the municipals, as well as the nonuse of the Uniform System of Accounts, as prescribed by FERC for privately owned electric utilities, necessitated functional adjustments to reported data. Throughout this report references made to municipal electric utilities mean the 161 utilities that are included in this publication. Aggregate data are for utilities covered in this publication and have not been expanded to include the total universe.