PrintOverview:
By reviewing outlooks, we can gain an understanding of the drivers or influences that impact how they are created. Various companies seek to create outlooks that reflect the priorities that are most important to their goals and the anticipated needs of their consumers. Being able to analyze and interpret the data is an important skill you will need in order to achieve success in your chosen career. For this assignment, we will deep dive into one of the outlooks, the EIA Outlook, and explore the data in more detail.
Purpose:
To successfully complete this assignment, you will write an essay where you interpret the trends reflected in a graph you will create using the interactive function of the EIA Outlook.
Interpreting and explaining data:
As we demonstrated in the example above, it is possible to plot information from several variables in order to interpret what the patterns and trends tell us about energy sources and uses. This could be aspects related to different sources of energy such as natural gas or coal; or aspects about user patterns, such as residential vs. industrial. It is important that there be logic as to why you chose the variables to compare, as well as knowing where to find the supporting information from which you can draw conclusions about what you see. In the example above, we looked at other information in the EIA Outlook to explain the patterns that we saw in the graph we constructed.
Successful Completion:
We will revisit the EIA outlook we explored in Lesson 2, and the link. Energy Information Agency: The Energy Information Administration (EIA) is an office within the U.S. Department of Energy and was established in 1977. It is primarily a statistical and analytic agency and provides neutral data for others to use.
https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/
In 325 words (plus or minus 10%) write an essay that explores information presented by the outlook. Begin by creating a comparative graph as we did in the example but select different parameters. It would be best to compare logical items. For example, you might wish to compare industrial natural gas demand trends vs. residential trends. Or you might want to compare electricity vs. gasoline in the transportation sector. Do not feel limited to only two items; feel free to group several together that tell a logical story. For example, in our sample above, we chose two energy sources in the residential sector in order to try to draw conclusions. Your essay should be submitted in Microsoft Word and will address the following questions.
- Which parameters did you choose and why?
- What are the trends for each and how do they differ?
Using supporting information from the rest of the outlook, try to explain why the trends are what they are. The best way to do this is to read about the logic for each item. You can use the topic specific PDF or PPT links on the home page.
What is your opinion about the projection? Does it make sense to you? In our example above, one might wonder why the renewable energy use in the residential sector never really takes off.