Are you interested in getting free energy data? The U.S. government produces a wealth of information on energy pricing that you can use for budgeting and projections for your portfolio. The U.S. Energy Information Association (EIA), part of the Department of Energy, provides independent statistics and analysis which is used by numerous professionals in the energy field. They produce a monthly publication, called the Short-Term Energy Outlook, that is updated with the latest production, demand, and pricing forecasts. Here is the link:
http://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/
For example, the February 2017 report issued on 2/7/17 states “ The U.S. residential electricity price averaged 12.3 cents per kilowatthour (kWh) in January 2017 and is expected to average 12.5 cents/kWh in the first quarter of 2017. EIA expects the annual average U.S. residential electricity price to increase by 3.0% in 2017 and by 2.4% in 2018.” Also, for natural gas prices they “forecast Henry Hub natural gas spot price rising from an average of $3.43/MMBtu in 2017 to $3.70/MMBtu in 2018.”
In addition to general information, they also breakdown the data in spreadsheet format (click on “All Tables” at the top). The data shows historical and forecast data by month broken into nine different geographic divisions and separated into residential, commercial and industrial sectors. In addition to electricity and natural gas prices, each on their own tab, there is even a tab for weather data that shows the heating and cooling degree days for each geographic area.
This data is not actually free, since it is paid for by our taxes, but it is equivalent or better than some of the private services available commercially.
