Energy Supplier Introductory Letter

D epartment of Energy

Washington, DC 20585

[Supplier Name] [Date]

[Street address 1]

[Street address 2]

[City, state, zip]

Dear [FirstName] [LastName]:

I am following up on your recent conversation with staff from XXXXXX, our contractor for the Energy Supplier Survey (ESS), a congressionally mandated study of residential energy usage.

We are contacting you because one or more households who participated in our 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) named your company as their energy supplier. The ESS collects energy usage and cost records for those households for the 24-month period from April 2019 to March 2021.

While this is a mandatory reporting requirement authorized by Federal Law (Public Law 93-275), we hope that you see the value in making the RECS data series as timely and accurate as possible. More information about the laws and citations related to RECS are provided on the back of this letter and the survey website.

We strongly encourage electronic data reporting through our secure website. On the ESS website you will be able to access a list of your customers who participated in the RECS. You can select one of three options to submit the requested data for your selected customers: an online web form, a downloadable and ready-to-use spreadsheet, or forms you can print and submit by mail or fax.

To access the ESS website, you will need two unique login credentials: your secure user ID and your password. Your user ID is below.

Website: recs2020ess.org

User ID: ess10001

For security reasons, your password will be sent via email; you should receive it soon after this letter arrives. If you have not received the password email, please contact Westat as soon as possible at the toll-free number below.

The due date to complete the 2020 Energy Supplier Survey is XXXXXXX XX, 20XX.

Support specialists from XXXXX stand ready to assist you on the ESS Hotline at 855-792-3213. You may also contact EIA directly by calling or emailing Chip Berry, the ESS Survey Manager, at 202-586-5543 or james.berry@eia.gov.

Your participation is vital to the continued success of this program. Thank you again. We greatly appreciate your support for this study.

Sincerely,

Charles Ian Mead

Director, Office of Energy Demand and Integrated Statistics

U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy

AUTHORIZING LEGISLATION

The Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) is authorized under the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-275), as amended, and the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-486). RECS is sponsored by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy.

CONFIDENTIALITY

This study is conducted under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) of 2002 (Public Law 107-347). Data collected under the provisions of this legislation are required to be kept confidential and to be used only for statistical purposes (i.e., characterizations for population subgroups that do not reveal any information that could identify individual responses). EIA, as the sponsoring organization for the RECS, is responsible for assuring that all identifying information such as a respondent’s address is kept confidential and cannot be linked to energy usage and cost data collected in the RECS.

MANDATORY REPORTING

The RECS Energy Supplier Survey (Forms EIA-457 D-G) is mandatory under Section 13(b) of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-275), as amended. Failure to respond may result in a civil penalty of not more than $2,750 per day for each violation, or a fine of not more than $5,000 per day for each willful violation.

OMB CONTROL NUMBER and PUBLIC REPORTING BURDEN

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number for this data collection is 1905-0092. The reporting burden on the public for this collection of information is estimated to average 15 minutes per case. Send comments regarding the public reporting burden or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to:

U.S. Energy Information Administration

Office of Statistical Development and Survey Integration (EI-21)

1000 Independence Ave, SW

Washington, D.C. 20585

and

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

Office of Management and Budget

Washington, D.C. 20503