IRES Chapter II — Scope of Energy Statistics

Chapter II (PDF pp. 30–33) sets out what counts as energy, in the statistical sense, and works through the boundary issues and basic concepts needed to delineate the domain: energy products, energy flows, the production boundary, reference territory, energy industries and energy consumers. Most of these concepts are only introduced here — their full definitions are deferred to later chapters, principally Chapter III (SIEC) and Chapter V (flows, industries, consumers), which this digest forward-references rather than duplicates.

A. Energy and energy statistics (paras 2.1–2.7)

Energy, in the physics sense, is the capacity of a physical system to do work, existing in potential form (e.g., chemical energy, water stored in a reservoir at height, nuclear energy) and kinetic form (e.g., wind, falling water) [IRES, Ch. II, para. 2.1, PDF p. 30, 2018]. Not all energy is an object of statistical observation: energy existing in nature without a direct impact on society is not measured as part of energy statistics, though national practices differ on where that line falls. The term “energy statistics” itself is used with varying scope — from a narrow reading focused on production/consumption of a few main products, to broader versions covering basic energy statistics, energy balances and energy accounts [IRES, Ch. II, para. 2.2, PDF p. 30, 2018].

See Scope of Energy Statistics for IRES’s own scope (basic energy statistics and energy balances, paras 2.3, 2.7), the energy data warehouse model (paras 2.4–2.5), and energy resources/reserves (para 2.6).

Section A closes by noting that energy data collection should be organized in close collaboration with other national data collection activities — citing as examples the International Recommendations for Industrial Statistics 2008 (UN 2009b), the International Recommendations for Distributive Trade Statistics 2008 (UN 2009a), and the International Merchandise Trade Statistics, Rev. 2 (UN 1998) — to avoid duplication of effort and ensure overall coherence of official statistics [IRES, Ch. II, para. 2.7, PDF p. 31, 2018].

B. Basic concepts and boundary issues: an overview (paras 2.8–2.19)

Energy statistics is a specialized domain with long-established concepts and terminology; where a term’s meaning diverges from other statistical areas (e.g., “stocks” in national accounts, see para. 5.16), IRES flags and explains the difference [IRES, Ch. II, para. 2.8, PDF p. 31, 2018].

Energy products (paras 2.9–2.11). See Energy Products for the full definition, the primary/secondary and renewable/non-renewable distinctions, and the corncobs example used to work through boundary delineation.

Energy flows (para 2.12). Energy flows describe the activities of economic actors on a compiling country’s national territory — production, import, export and use of energy products. Official energy statistics must establish a broad understanding of the totality of these flows and their impact on society and the environment; full treatment is in Chapter V, which defines each flow term individually: Production, Imports and Exports, International Bunkers, Stock Changes, Transformation, Losses, Energy Industries Own Use, Non-Energy Use and Final Consumption [IRES, Ch. II, para. 2.12, PDF p. 32, 2018].

Production boundary (para 2.13). As a general guideline, the energy production boundary includes production of energy products by any economic unit, including households, regardless of whether production is a unit’s principal, secondary or ancillary activity, and regardless of whether output is sold/delivered to other units or used internally. The full definition of energy production is on Production; the principal-vs-secondary/ancillary distinction this boundary spans is resolved by Energy Industries (principal activity) and Other Energy Producers (secondary/ancillary activity) [IRES, Ch. II, para. 2.13, PDF p. 32, 2018].

Reference territory (paras 2.14–2.16). See Reference Territory for the full definition (land, airspace, territorial waters, islands, free trade zones, and the foreign-enclave convention) and its relationship to the economic-territory concept used in the SNA and Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6).

Energy industries (para 2.17). Countries’ practices in defining the boundary of energy industries and the indicators describing their activity vary significantly — units considered part of energy industries may also engage in non-energy activities. IRES’s specific recommendations for defining energy industries, including Table 5.1’s full industry-by-industry taxonomy with ISIC Rev. 4 cross-references, are on Energy Industries [IRES, Ch. II, para. 2.17, PDF p. 33, 2018].

Energy production outside the energy industries (para 2.18). Energy can also be produced by enterprises for whom it is a secondary or ancillary activity — e.g., an aluminium producer’s own power plant, a sugar cane plant burning bagasse for heat, or waste incineration with heat recovery. For a complete picture of national energy supply and demand, such production must also be collected and included in total energy production. These units are what Chapter V calls other energy producers [IRES, Ch. II, para. 2.18, PDF p. 33, 2018].

Energy uses and energy consumers (para 2.19). Energy products are used for varying purposes (e.g., input to secondary energy production, or final consumption) by different user groups (industries, households). Consumption statistics matter for energy policy, efficiency assessment and environmental-impact analysis. The full consumer-group taxonomy (Table 5.3) is on Energy Consumers; the cross-classification of uses by purpose and user group (Figure 5.2) is on Cross-Classification of Uses and Users of Energy [IRES, Ch. II, para. 2.19, PDF p. 33, 2018].

Recommendations and encouragements in this chapter

Three provisions from Table 1.1 fall in this chapter (see Recommendations and Encouragements for the grading convention):

Para	Recommendation/encouragement
2.6	It is recommended that data on energy resources and reserves, though generally collected by specialized agencies (e.g., geological institutes), be obtained and included in the energy data warehouse [IRES, Ch. II, Table 1.1, para. 2.6, PDF p. 24, 2018; see also para. 2.6, PDF p. 31, 2018].
2.7	It is recommended that energy data collection be organized in close collaboration with other national data collection activities to avoid duplication of effort and ensure overall coherence of official statistics [IRES, Ch. II, Table 1.1, para. 2.7, PDF p. 24, 2018; see also para. 2.7, PDF p. 31, 2018].
2.9	It is recommended that energy products be defined as those exclusively or mainly used as a source of energy, with peat, biomass and waste included by convention only when used for energy purposes [IRES, Ch. II, Table 1.1, para. 2.9, PDF p. 24, 2018; see also para. 2.9, PDF p. 31, 2018].

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