A New Methodology for Frame Building and Sample Design for the State Heating Oil and Propane Program (SHOPP)

• Activity Number: 311 - SPEED: Environment and Health, Governmental Policies and Population Surveys, Part 2
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, July 30, 2019 : 9:25 AM to 10:10 AM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Edgardo Cureg and Marcela Bradbury*
• Companies: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
• Keywords: propane and heating oil; State Heating Oil and Propane Program; price estimates; sampling; frame construction; third party data

Abstract

Every year during the winter heating season, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) conducts a weekly survey to collect price data and produce state-level price estimates from outlets that sell residential propane and No. 2 heating oil in 38 states and the District of Columbia. The survey is part of the State Heating Oil and Propane Program (SHOPP), a cooperative data collection effort between EIA and State Energy Offices. SHOPP price estimates are used widely by state and federal governments, industry analysts, the press, and consumers. The propane and heating oil industries have a low barrier to entry and a high fail rate for new retailers, making frame maintenance challenging. This paper describes EIA’s current efforts to update the SHOPP survey sampling frame and select a new sample for the 2019-2020 winter heating season. In particular, the paper illustrates the use of administrative and third-party data sources such as Equifax’s database and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) to update the sampling frame for SHOPP, and it also describes the methodology for selecting a stratified systematic sample from the sampling frame.