Supporting Statement A – Annual Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey

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The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical and analytical agency within the 
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), prepared this report. By law, our data, analyses, and forecasts are independent of approval by any other officer or employee of the U.S. Government. The views in this report do not represent those of DOE or any other federal agencies. 


Table of Contents
Part A: Justification	i
Introduction	2
A.1. Legal Justification	2
A.2. Needs and Uses of Data	3
A.3. Use of Technology	4
A.4. Efforts to Identify Duplication	5
A.5. Provisions for Reducing Burden on Small Businesses	8
A.6. Consequences of Less-Frequent Reporting	9
A.7. Compliance with 5 CFR 1320.5	10
A.8. Summary of Consultations Outside of the Agency	10
A.9. Payments or Gifts to Respondents	10
A.10. Provisions for Protection of Information	10
A.11. Justification for Sensitive Questions	11
A.12. Estimate of Respondent Burden Hours and Cost	11
A.13. Annual Cost to the Federal Government	11
A.14. Collection, Tabulation, and Publication Plans	12
A.15. OMB Number and Expiration Date	13
A.16. Certification Statement	13




Introduction
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is the statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). It collects, analyzes, and disseminates independent and impartial energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and public understanding regarding energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. EIA is required to publish, and otherwise make available independent, high-quality statistical data to federal government agencies, state and local governments, the energy industry, researchers, and the general public. To meet this obligation, EIA utilizes Form EIA-847, Annual Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (AMECS), to collect data on manufacturing energy consumption and expenditures within the United States. 
EIA is requesting a one-year clearance to Form EIA-847. Response to this survey is mandatory. 
EIA-847, Annual Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey
Form EIA-847 consists of a subset of questions focusing on select energy sources and select industries from the nationally representative sample survey, EIA-846, Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey, which collects information on energy consumption and expenditure data from establishments in the manufacturing sector, i.e., North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes 31-33. For the first time, annual information will be collected and used to publish aggregate statistics on consumption of energy for fuel and nonfuel purposes, as well as certain energy-related issues such as energy prices within the six most energy-intensive manufacturing subsectors. The Annual MECS data will also be used in EIA’s National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) industrial models which are used to benchmark other government and non-government modeling systems.
Clearance is requested to permit EIA to implement the 2025 Annual Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (AMECS), Form EIA-847, to collect annual data on energy consumption and expenditures for the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy. The Annual MECS will be conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of the Census, acting as the data collection agent for EIA. This survey will be fielded in 2026 to collect data for calendar year 2025. This will be the first time an Annual MECS will be conducted. Although responses are mandatory under law, the Annual MECS data will be used for statistical purposes only. All individual responses are strictly confidential and no data that could lead to respondent identification, either directly or indirectly, will be released. 
A.1. Legal Justification
The authority for this mandatory data collection is provided by the following provisions:
    a. Title 15 U.S.C. 772(b), of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 (FEA Act), Public Law 93 275 authorizes mandatory collection of energy supply and consumption data by the Administrator.
    b. Title 15 U.S.C. 764(a and b) establishes the Administrator's powers to plan, direct, and conduct mandatory and voluntary energy programs related to the production, conservation, use, control, distribution, rationing, and allocation of all forms of energy that are designed and implemented in a fair and efficient manner, including duties to collect, evaluate, assemble, and analyze energy information on reserves, production, demand, and related economic data and work with business, labor, consumer and other interests and obtain their cooperation.
    c. Title 15 U.S.C. 790(a) establishes a National Energy Information System that is the enclave containing energy information collected by EIA as required to provide a description of and facilitate analysis of energy supply and consumption within and affecting the US on the basis of such geographic areas and economic sectors to carry out the Administration's statistical and forecasting activities to meet the needs of DOE, Congress, and the States.
    d. Title 42 U.S.C. 7135 authorizes the Administrator to conduct and publish results from manufacturing, residential, and commercial energy consumption surveys, as well as an annual survey of electricity production from domestic renewable energy resources.
A.2. Needs and Uses of Data
The purpose of the Annual MECS is to collect information from the six most energy-intensive manufacturing subsectors on basic energy consumption and expenditures of selected energy sources. These six subsectors account for about 85% of the energy consumed in the U.S. manufacturing sector.
The Annual MECS fulfills multiple needs and requirements for analysis at DOE. It is the only annual national survey on energy consumption of the six most energy-intensive manufacturing subsectors that is statistically reliable. Data obtained from the Annual MECS will serve as a major input into EIA’s National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) industrial models which are used to benchmark other government and non-government modeling systems. The results of the NEMS, as well as the Annual MECS data themselves, are used as inputs into national energy policy decisions and DOE research and development strategies as well as a broad range of conservation and renewable energy industrial programs. 
EIA has a series of surveys in place that collect data on energy consumption to analyze the issues of the demand for energy and the effect of that demand on the Nation's social and economic needs. Three of these systems are now operating: Forms EIA-457 A-G, “Residential Energy Consumption Survey” (OMB Number 1905-0092); Forms EIA-871 A-F, “Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey” (OMB Number 1905-0145); and Form EIA-846, “Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey” (OMB Number 1905-0169). These surveys span end-use sectors that account for approximately 55 percent of the energy consumption in the United States. Manufacturing operations alone account for approximately 30 percent of total U.S. energy consumption. The wide range of data that the Annual MECS will collect and publish, with known precision, makes it the most reliable and accurate tool for providing energy statistics covering the most energy-intensive manufacturing subsectors. 
The information from the Annual MECS will be used to produce aggregate statistics on the energy consumption of the manufacturing sector, including energy purchases, expenditures, transfers in and shipments out, onsite generation and both fuel and nonfuel use of five widely used energy sources. To maintain an updated NEMS each year, Form EIA-847 will also be used to update the historical industrial energy consumption benchmark. The Annual MECS is expected to be used in a manner consistent with previous MECS datasets, including informing energy policies and supporting economic competitiveness in the manufacturing sector. 
 
Among MECS data users is the Industrial Technologies Office (ITO) at US Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Updates are in progress for another set of Web products, Manufacturing Energy and Carbon Footprints, which can be found at https://www.energy.gov/eere/iedo/manufacturing-energy-and-carbon-footprints-2018-mecs. Those documents, originally developed in partnership with DOE’s Industrial Technologies Office, summarize MECS and other related data for sixteen manufacturing industries that are significant consumers of energy. The MECS establishes the basis of ongoing estimates for changes in energy intensity and greenhouse gases. The data is used extensively by EIA's Office of Energy Consumption and Efficiency Analysis as inputs to NEMS models. 
The International Energy Agency (IEA) receives MECS aggregate data regularly as they benchmark for U.S. manufacturing energy consumption. MECS estimates are used routinely in many research projects being conducted by organizations such as the Gas Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and others.
A.3. Use of Technology
The MECS is largely an Internet-based electronic survey, with a paper form version for those respondents that require it. However, the Annual MECS data collection will only be available on Centurion, an electronic-collection platform. The use of Centurion allows for a reduction in response burden and data processing time, allowing annual replication of the survey. 
Due to the ease of electronic filing, approximately 85 percent of respondents who reported data for the 2006 MECS did so using the Internet. U.S. Census Bureau, on behalf of EIA, has continued to collect data through Centurion for every MECS since then and will continue this practice. The reporting of data electronically has continued to increase. As of the 2022 MECS about 92 percent of respondents reported data through the Internet. EIA believes that collecting data through the Internet lessens the response burden because it is easier to use, faster to complete, and requires fewer edit callbacks than the paper form reporting method.
Many of the same features that were employed for the 2006 MECS Centurion questionnaire such as using the NAICS code to customize the form without prior preparation will continue to be utilized for the 2025 Annual MECS. This allows respondents in the refining industry to tailor their form so that it includes only questions relevant to their industry. Thus, Form EIA-847 represents a substantial reduction in burden on the refining industry and will continue to collect only fuel consumption for petroleum products. For energy sources that are not petroleum products, the same data will be collected as for other industries. However, for both petroleum and non-petroleum products consumed in refineries, no feedstock data will be collected. 
Petroleum refineries, which receive Form EIA-846(B), ship greater quantities of energy sources than any other manufacturing industry. However, Form EIA-846(B) took advantage of common data available from Form EIA-810, “Monthly Refinery Report” and employed a different concept of energy sources inputs.  Data reported on Form EIA-810, “Monthly Refinery Report” are used to measure feedstock and offsite-produced fuel usage. Therefore, petroleum refiners will receive a shorter Centurion questionnaire for the 2025 Annual MECS because EIA will continue to make use of data from other surveys. 
A.4. Efforts to Identify Duplication
EIA reviews and evaluates manufacturing energy consumption information available from a variety of sources, including other federal agencies, industry trade associations, state governments, and commercial information services, to identify instances of duplication. Additionally, in the public notices and consultations associated with the clearance of Form EIA-847, EIA encourages respondents and data users to identify alternate sources of manufacturing energy consumption information EIA proposes to collect. Instances of potential data duplication identified by EIA are evaluated in terms of data coverage, level of aggregation, frequency of collection, data reliability, and statutory requirements to determine whether alternate data sources represent a suitable substitute for EIA data. 
EIA has carefully examined several federal government survey instruments to assess whether there is any duplicative data collection with Form EIA-847. These instruments are: Form EIA-3, Quarterly Survey of Non-Electric Sector Coal Data; Form EIA-810, Monthly Refinery Report; Form EIA-820, Annual Refinery Report; FERC-1, Annual Report of Major Electric Utilities, Licensees, and Others; EIA-923, Power Plant Operations Report; the Environmental Protection Agency Rule (40 CFR Part 98), Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases; and Bureau of the Census Form MA-1000, Annual Survey of Manufactures and Economic Census - Manufacturing. The inadequacies of these data as a substitute for the Annual MECS are discussed below.
The Inadequacies of Similar Data
Each survey form (Forms EIA-3, EIA-810, EIA-820, FERC-1, EIA-923, Rule (40 CFR Part 98), and MA-10000) was established to collect a specific set of data for in depth, narrowly defined purposes. The narrow scope of these data collections makes them unsuitable to meet the purposes of the Annual MECS.
a. 	Quarterly Survey of Non-Electric Sector Coal Data (EIA-3) (OMB No. 1905-0167)
Form EIA-3 provides data on consumption of coal on a limited number of establishments. It collects information only from manufacturing establishments that are known to consume coal for purposes other than coke production. The list of such establishments contains approximately 825 of the 293,000 manufacturing establishments in the United States, restricted to those that consumed 1,000 or more tons in the previous year. There are no data on inputs, dispositions, and consumption for energy sources other than coal. Nor are there data that Annual MECS requires: cogeneration of electricity, uses of energy sources as feedstocks, end-use estimates, or establishment characteristics. There are some differences between the two systems in what establishments populate the manufacturing sector.
b. 	Monthly and Annual Refinery Reports (EIA-810 and EIA-820) (OMB No. 1905-0165)
Forms EIA-810 and EIA-820 are considered together because they are comple­mentary systems that cover the same population. From the universe of approximately 200 refineries and blenders in the United States, these reports collect data on inputs of crude oil and other unfinished products, outputs of petroleum products, and on-site consumption of energy by those establishments. Refineries constitute a small but significant segment of the manufacturing industries. In addition, the two systems are designed to collect data for refining and blending operations only. In cases where the establishment houses a refinery that also contains separate petrochemical processing (not unusual), the data exclude the petrochemical activities. Thus, these refinery data systems do not provide comprehensive coverage of the energy sources of refining establishments. The Annual MECS, on the other hand, obtains energy data on the entire establishment. 
Prior to fielding the 1985 MECS, EIA proposed modifying Form EIA-820, the Annual Refinery Report, to collect MECS data. To explore this possibility, discussions were held with the American Petroleum Institute (API) before the 1985 MECS was conducted. API pointed out that since Form EIA-820 is an ongoing data collection that is well understood at the refineries, modifying it to incorporate all of the data to be collected for a periodic MECS would cause confusion and increase the burden on respondents. Spokesmen for API said that it would be preferable to conduct the two surveys separately rather than combine them. EIA will continue to manage burden by using Form EIA-810 data to arrive at an estimate of the nonfuel energy consumed in the refining process. The refineries' data on fuel consumption, however, must be obtained via the Annual MECS to remain consistent with the collection of the quadrennial MECS fuel consumption data. 
c. 	Annual Report of Major Electric Utilities, Licensees and Others (FERC-1) (OMB No. 1902-0021)
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Form FERC-1, Annual Report of Major Electric Utilities, Licensees, and Others, collects financial information from privately owned utilities. Data gathered via FERC-1 include quantity and value of electricity purchases and transfers from "other non-utility sources." Because these sources are listed by name but not categorized, industrial sources are included with other sources and not always readily identifiable. 
The survey of utilities develops information on how much electricity is produced and consumed in the non-utility sector. Moreover, the survey does not address the topics of energy sources or processes by how electricity is produced in the manufacturing sector. The Annual MECS must obtain information from manufacturers about the extent of industrial self-generation of electricity, and sales and transfers to utilities on a nationwide basis. Annual MECS data will provide complete information for electric-power analysis and modeling efforts within the six most energy-intensive manufacturing subsectors. 
d. 	Power Plant Operations Report (EIA-923) (OMB No. 1905-0129)
Form EIA-923 collects monthly cost and quality of fossil fuels delivered to unregulated and regulated entities with a total fossil fuel nameplate generating capacity of 50 megawatts or greater. Although some intersection with Annual MECS respondents is expected, there would be great difficulty in determining exact matches. Further, Form EIA-923 is designed to collect fuels that enter the generating plant only and not for the entire establishment as is the Annual MECS.
Form EIA-923 also collects data on air and water quality from steam-electric plants. Information collected on this form is used to derive emission estimates and includes fuel consumption, electricity generation, and useful thermal output. Form EIA-923 respondents include all regulated and unregulated electric power plants in the United States. Respondents report electric power generation, energy source consumption, end of reporting period fossil fuel stocks, and useful thermal output from co-generators. Although Annual MECS establishments can be expected to be a subset of the facilities that provide data for these surveys, the Annual MECS requires information for all aspects of consumption in manufacturing plants, not just for electric generation systems. Second, the Annual MECS collects thermal output from boilers not necessarily associated with electric generation. It is often difficult to match generators identified separately on EIA electric generation forms with Annual MECS manufacturing plants as identified by boundaries and classification associated with the Economic Census - Manufacturing, the Annual MECS frame. Therefore, the surveys may differ as to which generating facilities are associated with particular establishments or more generally, the manufacturing sector. 
e. 	Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule (40 CFR Parts 86, 87, 89, 90, 94, 98, 1033, 1039, 1042, 1045, 1048, 1051, 1054, 1065) (OMB No. 2060-0629)
The rule requires reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from large sources and suppliers in the United States; facilities emitting 25,000 metric tons or more of GHG emissions per year. It is not entirely clear at this point the exact extent of the duplication with Annual MECS. These facilities are required to collect combustion-unit level and fuel type data; however, they do not have to report these data in 2018. The reporting requirements for these entities may change for the reporting year 2021 and beyond. These data are used to calculate the facility-wide GHG emissions that are submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Although the mandatory reporting of greenhouse gases rule has some overlap with the Annual MECS, it is small and hard to know in advance which establishments or facilities overlap. The first difference is definitional in the level of reporting. The Annual MECS is an establishment survey; however, according to the rule, the level of reporting for EPA is at the facility level. “Facilities” may or may not align exactly with the Census/Annual MECS definition of the “establishment”. Also, as mentioned above, the rule requires only the largest and most energy/carbon-intensive facilities to report their emissions presumably excluding all others. Alternatively, the Annual MECS is a sample survey that includes small, medium, and large U.S. manufacturing establishments in the most energy-intensive industries, capturing about 85% of total US manufacturing energy consumption.  
As both the Annual MECS and the EPA rules have respondents assemble and collect energy consumption data albeit for different purposes, there is some duplication for some subsets of the manufacturing population. However, this duplication is necessary for the Annual MECS to fulfill its mission of providing not only energy consumption data, but also data on energy prices and expenditures. All these data sets contribute to determining manufacturing’s use of energy and also adds to the understanding of carbon dioxide emissions. 
 f. 	Annual Integrated Economic Survey (MA-1000) (OMB No. 0607-1024)
The Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES) is an economic survey that collects information on such characteristics as employment, payroll, value of shipments, capital expenditures, and value added by manufacturing. As such, the AIES collects limited energy data. The relationship of the AIES’s energy data to the Annual MECS program is discussed below. 
    • Cost of Fuels--The AIES collects data on total costs for all purchased fuels. The Annual MECS, on the other hand, collects data on the cost for each separate fuel.
    • Cost and Quantity of Purchased Electricity—The AIES collects data on electricity purchases and expenditures, but it does not collect any data pertaining to electricity transfers into the establishment.
    • The Annual MECS collects purchases and transfers separately, including expenditures. 
    • Electricity Sold or Transferred--The AIES collects data on total electricity sold or transferred to other establishments. The Annual MECS collects and publishes these data separately.

Thus, although there is some overlap between the two surveys, the Annual MECS provides more comprehensive energy related data needed for policy and program management analysis than the AIES. This overlap is desirable from the point of view of increasing the reliability of the Annual MECS. As described in Section B.3., the Census Bureau will conduct the Annual MECS using a sample selected from the Economic Census - Manufacturing (ECM) mail frame. Editing procedures will be developed for the Annual MECS responses that will compare the total of the disaggregated quantities on Form EIA-847 with the corresponding totals reported on AIES, providing a check on respondents' errors and misreporting. Additionally, it is appropriate to have some intersection between the two questionnaires for control purposes to improve the reliability of the Annual MECS. This greater control would decrease non-sampling error and reduce overall respondent burden. 
g. 	Economic Census – Manufacturing (MA-1000) (OMB No. 0607-0899)
The Economic Census - Manufacturing (ECM) is conducted by the Census Bureau in place of the AIES for years ending in the digit "2" and the digit "7" (e.g., 2012 and 2017). The ECM, like the AIES, collects primarily economic data, including data about material inputs. Some of those data items correspond to nonfuel or feedstock use of energy sources which are also collected by the Annual MECS. In fact, this overlap was helpful for editing purposes in the 2002 and 2022 MECS. However, the Annual MECS is intended to be collected every year, excluding the years a traditional MECS is collected, while the ECM is conducted every five years so in most years a one-to-one comparison is not possible. Further, not all Annual MECS feedstock data are duplicated by the ECM, nor does the ECM collect the data for all energy-intensive industries as does the Annual MECS. 
A.5. Provisions for Reducing Burden on Small Businesses 
EIA recognizes the need to minimize the reporting burden on small businesses and designs data surveys so that small operations are not unduly affected. EIA has established reporting thresholds for surveys likely to affect small businesses. These thresholds either eliminate the reporting requirement for small businesses or limit the amount of information they are asked to supply. 
Because the Annual MECS spans the energy-intensive manufacturing subsectors, small establishments will be included in the sample frame out of necessity. However, the current version of the Annual MECS form is designed to minimize the complexity of reporting, which will help the small establishments. As mentioned above in Section A.3, by using the Internet-based electronic questionnaire, establishments can customize their form and only see the data items relevant to them. This is a significant time savings over the written questionnaire. A paper version of Form EIA-847 will not be available which will reduce response and processing/editing burden. Therefore, all respondents will need to use the Internet-based electronic questionnaire. 
Overall, the role of the small establishments in the survey will be relatively minor. Under EIA's arrangement with the Census Bureau to serve as the data-collection agent for this survey, the Annual MECS will be a sub-sample of approximately 4,500 manufacturing establishments selected from the previous quadrennial MECS which is a sample of the Economic Census - Manufacturing (ECM) mail file and supplemented by Social Security Administration lists of new establishments. By sampling directly from the previous MECS, a sample from the ECM frame, rather than sub-sampling from the AIES, the overlap of small establishments in the Annual MECS and AIES samples is significantly reduced. The AIES sample contains approximately 50,000 establishments selected from the ECM, supplemented by the Social Security Administration’s lists of new establishments, which reduces coverage error within the current sampling frame. 
Establishments with fewer than approximately five employees (the actual number varies based on NAICS classification) are considered administrative record establishments and are excluded from the Annual MECS population and therefore the sample. Other establishments (i.e., those having approximately 5 to 250 employees) are sampled with probabilities ranging from 0.005 to 1.000. In the Annual MECS sampling strategy, the sampled proportion of establishments that employ 100 to 250 employees is greater than the sampled proportion of establishments with fewer than 100 employees. Moreover, the sampling of establishments with fewer than 50 employees is expected to be very light. The Annual MECS sample will be selected to maximize the efficiency of the survey for estimating energy consumption. 
Establishments with fewer than 50 employees consume less than four percent of total purchased fuels and, in general, do not have the wide variabi­lity of consumption of the larger establishments. Therefore, the proportion of smaller establishments selected for the Annual MECS is designed to be quite low. However, small establishments are eligible, which allows the sample to represent the population of manufacturing establishments, excluding those with five or fewer employees.
A.6. Consequences of Less-Frequent Reporting
The MECS had a statutory requirement to be a biennial survey and was a triennial survey, providing data for 1985, 1988, 1991, and 1994, before switching to a quadrennial schedule because of budget considerations. The current statutory requirement is for the MECS to be a quadrennial survey with the option to conduct the survey more frequently, and EIA is exercising that option to collect some data annually.
The manufacturing sector is constantly evolving, in part, because of technological advancements. The increased monitoring of manufacturing energy demand is essential in keeping pace with the changing manufacturing trends. Major shifts in energy demand, especially in the manufacturing sector, are tied to both profitability and expenditures for capital equipment--and both require medium- to long-term planning processes. An annual cycle would give EIA the ability to monitor these major shifts in manufacturing energy demand more accurately. 
A.7. Compliance with 5 CFR 1320.5
Form EIA-847 data collection is in compliance with the guidelines in CFR 1320.5.
A.8. Summary of Consultations Outside of the Agency
On February 9, 2026, EIA invited the public to comment on extending the collection of data related to manufacturing energy use by publishing a 60-day Federal Register Notice (Vol. 91, No. 26, pp. 5756, FR Doc. 2026–02536).
The 60-day Federal Register Notice proposed initiating a narrower but more frequent data collection, the Annual Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey, Form EIA-847, given the rapidly evolving energy-intensive economic landscape. This new form would supplement the quadrennial collection with a subset of data covering the intervening years. EIA could initiate collection under Form EIA-847 as early as 2026 for the 2025 reference year. EIA is not currently proposing any changes to Form EIA-846, which would continue to be administered in support of EIA’s National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) industrial models. The purpose of Form EIA-847 would be to collect the minimal data required to update NEMS each year. 
Form EIA-847 will be a self-administered sample survey of a subset of the manufacturing sector. Specifically, EIA proposes to limit this subset to sector codes 31-33 of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The information from this survey will be used to produce aggregate statistics on the energy consumption of the manufacturing sector, including energy purchases, expenditures, transfers in and shipments out, onsite generation and both fuel and nonfuel use of five widely used energy sources. To maintain an updated NEMS each year, Form EIA-847 will also be used to update the historical industrial energy consumption benchmark.
Form EIA-847, consisting of approximately 60 questions, will have a significantly reduced response burden compared to Form EIA-846, which consists of more than 250 questions. To keep the response burden as low as possible, EIA proposes a reduced sample size and only collecting data through Centurion, an electronic-collection platform. This method will allow respondents to choose which questions are pertinent to a specific establishment and will improve data editing and processing times overall.
Further, EIA did not receive any responses to the 60-day Federal Register notice. 
The 30-day Federal Register Notice 91 FR 24215, Doc. 2026-08723 was published on May 5th, 2026, announcing the submission of this information collection request to OMB.
A.9. Payments or Gifts to Respondents 
There will be no gifts or payments given to respondents as an incentive for completing Form EIA-847.
A.10. Provisions for Protection of Information 
The Annual MECS will be conducted by the Special Reimbursement Survey Branch within the Economic Reimbursable Division of the Census Bureau, as EIA's collection agent. The survey, authorized by the data-collection mandate of DOE, will be conducted according to the confidentiality provisions of the Census Bureau as specified in 13 U.S.C. § 9. This law requires, (1) the information furnished under the provisions of this title may not be used for any purpose other than the statistical purposes for which it is supplied; (2) the agency to protect the identifiability of the reported information; and (3) restricts access to the information to sworn officers and employees of the Census Bureau. 
The respondents will be informed of both the confidentia­lity provisions and the mandatory nature of the survey on the first page of the questionnaire, in the instructions, and in a cover letter cosigned by the Administrator of the EIA and the Director of the Census Bureau.
A.11. Justification for Sensitive Questions 
No sensitive questions are asked on Form EIA-847.
A.12. Estimate of Respondent Burden Hours and Cost 
The sample size for the 2025 Annual MECS will be about one-third the size of a typical quadrennial MECS sample, about 4,500 establishments. A breakdown for total respondent burden is shown below. The numbers of respondents completing the form in the following table are estimates.

If all 4,500 establishments completed the survey as indicated above, the total burden would be 8,484 hours. Because the Annual MECS will collect information annually, the average annual reporting burden is 8,484 hours.
The annual cost to the respondents is estimated to be $805,895 (8,484 annual burden hours multiplied by $94.99 per burden hour). 
An average cost per hour of $94.99 is used because that is the average loaded (salary plus benefits) cost for an EIA employee. EIA assumes that the survey respondent workforce completing surveys for EIA is comparable with the EIA workforce. 
A.13. Annual Cost to the Federal Government
The total cost to the Government for the 2025 Annual MECS is estimated to be $1,633,703. Of the $1,633,703, about 60 percent ($1,041,277), is paid to the U.S. Census Bureau, pursuant to a reimbursable agreement, for selecting the sample, collecting, and processing the data. The remaining $592,426 covers EIA staff time, which is estimated at three FTE’s, at an average cost of $197,475 per FTE. EIA staff costs cover: 1) identifying and monitoring user needs; 2) revising the survey questionnaire; 3) consulting with the Census Bureau on sample design, data collection, non-response follow-up, non-response adjustments, data processing, parameter and variance estimation, production of tables and survey documentation; 4) analyzing data; and 5) preparing data reports and special analyses.

Table A2. Annual Cost to the Federal Government, Form EIA-847 (Estimated)
Agency
Cost
Data Collection and Processing (Census Bureau) 
$1,041,277
System Maintenance and Enhancement (EIA)
$592,426
Total
$1,633,703
A.14. Collection, Tabulation, and Publication Plans
The results of the Annual MECS will be released electronically by EIA on the EIA Website http://www.eia.gov/consumption/manufacturing/index.cfm.
All tables in the publication will be prepared by the Census Bureau in accordance with EIA's directions. All tables will be reviewed by the Census Bureau for conformity to their disclosure standards. These standards are established to protect the confidentiality of individual respondents as required by Title 13, Section 9, of the U.S. Code. 
The primary electronic output for the 2025 survey will contain tables covering consumption of specific energy sources by selected 3, 4 and 6-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes. Consumption estimates are of four types: total primary consumption; consumption for heat, power, and generation of electricity; consumption for non-fuel (e.g. feedstock) use; and consumption of received energy sources for the purpose of heat, power, and generation of electricity. 
The 2025 Annual MECS release will continue the practice of presenting estimates of generalized relative standard errors (RSE) for each table estimate. 
A website report reviewing the results of the 2025 Annual MECS and changes from the 2022 MECS will be produced along with other special topic analytical reports to be determined.
Data collection for the 2025 Annual MECS is scheduled to begin in October 2026. Responses are expected no later than March 2027. (See Section B.3. for follow-up procedures.) The final data set (including final edits) and the summary tabulations are expected to be ready by May 2027. The analysis and publication of summary reports are scheduled for May 2027 through July 2027. Plans to tabulate and publish data collected by Form EIA-847 are described below: 



Activity
Expected Date of Completion

Begin Data Collection

October 2026

End Data Collection

March 2027

Final Data Set Compiled 

April 2027

Summary Tabulations

May 2027

Publication of Analysis

May 2027 through July 2027
A.15. OMB Number and Expiration Date 
The OMB Number 1905-NEW and data collection expiration date will be displayed on all data collection forms and instructions. 
A.16. Certification Statement 
There are no exceptions to the certification statement identified in Item 19, “certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions,” of OMB Form 83-I. This information collection request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9.