Electricity sales¹ totaled nearly 3.7 trillion kilowatthours (kWh) in 2006.  Electricity was first sold in the United States in 1879 by the California Electric Light Company in San Francisco, which produced and sold only enough electricity to power 21 electric lights (Brush arc light lamps) a few kWh at most.   Sales in 2006 were about 12.6 times greater than sales in 1950.

Sales to residential customers of 1,351.52 Billion kWh accounted for 37 percent of total sales in 2006. Sales to commercial, industrial and transportation were 35 percent, 28 percent and less than one percent of total sales respectively.

Investor-owned electric utilities sold 67 percent of the total electricity sold in 2006.  Sales by Public utilities were 15 percent of total sales, followed by Cooperatives at 10 percent, Energy Only Providers at 6 percent, and Federal Power Marketing Authorities at about 1 percent of total sales (see chart).

Total sales in 2006 were only slightly more than they were in 2005.  Residential and industrial sales declined while commercial sales increased slightly.  Sales for public transportation decreased about 2 percent over sales in 2005, but make up a very small share of total sales.

Electricity Sales by Customer Class, 1950 to 2006

Figure Data (XLS)

The shares of residential and commercial sales have increased over time, while the share of industrial sales has declined.  In 1950, sales to residential customers were 25 percent of total sales, sales to commercial customers were 23 percent of total shares, and sales to industrial customers were 50 percent of total sales. In 2006, residential sales were 37 percent, commercial sales were 35 percent and industrial sales were 27 percent of total sales.

Sales of electricity by competing suppliers in “restructured” States have increased over time, but market share may have leveled off.  Some States have restructured the electric utility industry to allow electricity consumers to choose a supplier or provider of the electricity they consume. The companies that provide only electricity are defined by EIA as “Energy-Only Providers” or EOP.  In 1996, five States had customer choice and EOP sales totaled about 3.3 billion kWh, or about one percent of total sales in those States. In 2006, 20 States had customer choice and total EOP sales of 219 billion kWh (down from about 237 billion kWh in 2005), which was about 14 percent of total sales in those States and about 6 percent of total sales in all States.  Most of the EOP sales were to commercial (59 percent) and industrial (33 percent) customers; residential sales were 6 percent and sales to public transportation entities were 2 percent of sales by EOP.  Twenty-five percent of all EOP sales in 2006 were in New York , where EOP sales were 39 percent of that State's total electricity sales and 74 percent of those EOP sales were to commercial customers.

^1. Electricity sales are the number of kilowatt-hours (kWh; 1,000 Watt-hours) sold during a given period of time. Sales are normally classified according to the type of customer or service buying and using the electricity, such as residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation.  Sales of electricity reflect most of the electricity consumed by those sectors, although some electricity is generated “on-site” and consumed directly, mostly at industrial facilities and commercial and institutional buildings.  Transportation sales go to electrified rail and urban public transportation systems where electricity is the main propulsive energy source.  Prior to 2003, EIA included electricity sales for public-street and highway lighting, public authorities, and railroads and railways in the category “Other.” In 2003, EIA assigned sales for public street and highway lighting and public authorities to the "Commercial" category and created "Transportation" as a new end-use category.

More information on this subject can be found in the following EIA publications:
       Electric Sales, Revenue and Price, 2006
       State Electricity Profiles
       Electric Power Annual
       Annual Energy Review