IRES Chapter V — Energy Flows

Chapter V (PDF pp. 68–83) describes energy flows and the main groups of economic units relevant for collecting data on them: energy industries, other energy producers, and energy consumers. It complements the concepts and definitions of Chapters III and IV, providing the foundation for the data-item identification and balance-compilation work of Chapters VI–VIII [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.1, PDF p. 68, 2018].

A. Introduction (para 5.1)

States the chapter’s purpose: describe energy flows and the economic units relevant to collecting data on them, as a foundation for later chapters on data collection, compilation strategy, and energy balances [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.1, PDF p. 68, 2018].

B. Concept of energy flows (paras 5.2–5.8)

“Energy flow” refers to the production, import, export, bunkering, stock changes, transformation, energy use by energy industries, losses during transformation, and final consumption of energy products within a reference territory (usually the national territory, but potentially a sub-national region or a group of countries) [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.2, PDF p. 68, 2018]. An energy product first appears in the territory through production or import; once produced or transformed, it can be exported, stocked, bunkered, used by energy industries themselves, or delivered for final consumption [IRES, Ch. V, paras 5.3–5.4, PDF p. 68, 2018]. Final consumption splits into final energy consumption (heat, transport, electricity needs) and non-energy use (feedstocks, raw materials); final energy consumption is further disaggregated by economic activity, while transport use is tracked independently of sector [IRES, Ch. V, paras 5.5– 5.6, PDF p. 68, 2018]. Figure 5.1 diagrams the main flows between the reference territory and the rest of the world (unclear-extraction note: the source pdftotext linearizes the figure’s box-and-arrow layout; its routing is reconstructed from the surrounding prose, not read directly off the figure) [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.7, Figure 5.1, PDF p. 69, 2018]. Depending on their role, economic units are categorized as energy industries, other energy producers, or energy consumers — treated in Sections D, E and F respectively [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.8, PDF p. 69, 2018].

C. Definition of main energy flows (paras 5.9–5.22)

The definitions in this section are the result of InterEnerStat’s work, reviewed and supported by the Oslo Group on Energy Statistics and the United Nations Expert Group on Energy Statistics (Expert Group on Energy Statistics). Countries are recommended to follow these definitions as closely as possible, reflecting any deviations in their energy metadata [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.9, PDF p. 69, 2018] — recommendations tracker row V/5.9.

Each flow term gets its own dedicated page, cross-linked below:

• Production — primary vs. secondary production [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.10, PDF pp. 69–70, 2018]
• Imports and Exports — the general-trade-system convention, bunkering and nuclear-fuel exclusions [IRES, Ch. V, paras 5.11–5.13, PDF p. 70, 2018]
• International Bunkers — international marine and aviation bunkers [IRES, Ch. V, paras 5.14–5.15, PDF p. 70, 2018]
• Stock Changes — stock build/draw, plus transfers (products transferred, interproduct transfers) [IRES, Ch. V, paras 5.16–5.17, PDF pp. 70–71, 2018]
• Transformation — base definition, expanded below with the full Section D.2 process typology [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.18, PDF p. 71, 2018]
• Losses — transmission/distribution losses, venting and flaring, pilferage [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.19, PDF p. 71, 2018]
• Energy Industries Own Use — EIOU, covering both energy industries and other energy producers [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.20, PDF p. 71, 2018]
• Non-Energy Use — the reductants exception [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.21, PDF p. 71, 2018]
• Final Consumption — final energy consumption vs. non-energy use [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.22, PDF p. 71, 2018]

D. Energy industries (paras 5.23–5.44)

Energy industries are defined, for international comparability, as economic units whose principal activity is primary energy production, transformation of energy, or distribution of energy, with a few practical additions [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.23, PDF p. 71, 2018] — recommendations tracker row V/5.23. Statistics on energy industries’ characteristics and activities are recommended as part of official energy statistics [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.24, PDF p. 71, 2018] — recommendations tracker row V/5.24. Box 5.1 grounds the principal-activity test in the System of National Accounts (SNA 2008)’s principal/secondary/ancillary activity definitions [IRES, Ch. V, Box 5.1, PDF p. 72, 2018]. Table 5.1 lists eighteen energy-industry categories with their corresponding ISIC Rev. 4 classification, followed by prose descriptions of each [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.26, Table 5.1, paras 5.27–5.44, PDF pp. 72–74, 2018] — recommendations tracker row V/5.26. Full detail, including the reproduced table and all industry descriptions, is on Energy Industries.

D.1 Electricity and heat (paras 5.45–5.67)

Statistics on electricity and heat (SIEC sections 7 and 8) are collected by type of producer (main activity producers, autoproducers of electricity, autoproducers of heat) and type of generating plant (electricity plants, CHP plants, heat plants), with reporting requirements for each combination summarized in Table 5.2 [IRES, Ch. V, paras 5.45–5.48, PDF pp. 74–75, 2018]. Pumped storage plants consume more electricity than they eventually generate [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.49, PDF p. 75, 2018]. Seventeen further paragraphs define each generation source/technology for electricity (solar PV, solar thermal, wind, hydro, wave, tidal, other marine, geothermal, nuclear, chemical processes, other sources) and heat (solar, geothermal, nuclear, combustible fuels, chemical processes, other sources) [IRES, Ch. V, paras 5.50–5.67, PDF pp. 75–76, 2018]. Full detail, including Table 5.2 in full, is on Electricity and Heat Production.

D.2 Transformation processes (paras 5.68–5.74)

A transformation process is the movement of part or all of the energy content of a product entering the process to one or more different products leaving it. There are two groups: (a) physical or chemical conversion (e.g. refining, coke oven carbonization, heat-to-electricity conversion), and (b) aggregation or blending (e.g. gas blending, briquetting) [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.69, PDF p. 76, 2018]. Transformation processes are identified by sixteen categories of plant, most already described under Table 5.1; three additional plant types are defined here — peat briquette plants, natural gas blending plants, and petrochemical plants, the last of which is explicitly excluded from energy industries and treated as an energy consumer instead [IRES, Ch. V, paras 5.70–5.74, PDF pp. 76–77, 2018]. Full detail is on Transformation (expanded from its Pass-1 base definition).

E. Other energy producers (paras 5.75–5.77)

Other energy producers are economic units — including households — for which energy production, transformation or distribution is a secondary or ancillary activity rather than their principal one, the mirror image of energy industries [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.75, PDF p. 77, 2018]. Examples include remote industries generating their own power, iron/steel works producing their own coke and electricity, sugar mills burning bagasse, and households with solar panels [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.76, PDF p. 78, 2018]. It is recommended that countries obtain detailed data from significant other energy producers and incorporate it into official statistics and energy balances [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.77, PDF p. 78, 2018] — recommendations tracker row V/5.77. Full detail is on Other Energy Producers.

F. Energy consumers and energy uses (paras 5.78–5.97)

1. Energy consumers (paras 5.78–5.82)

Energy consumers are economic units acting as final users of energy; economic units belonging to energy industries that use energy to produce other energy products are excluded (that use is EIOU instead) [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.79, PDF p. 78, 2018]. It is recommended that countries identify the seventeen consumer groups listed in Table 5.3, each cross-referenced to ISIC Rev. 4 [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.80, PDF p. 78, 2018] — recommendations tracker row V/5.80. Full detail, including Table 5.3 in full, is on Energy Consumers.

2. Cross-classification of uses and users of energy (paras 5.83–5.97)

Energy products are used for three purposes — energy (excluding transport), transport, and non-energy — plus transformation; Figure 5.2 cross-classifies these uses (columns) against user groups, energy industries and energy consumers (rows), in a five-box matrix: (a) transformation, (b) energy industries own use, (c) energy use excluding transport by energy consumers, (d) energy use for transport by all economic units, and (e) non-energy use [IRES, Ch. V, paras 5.83–5.88, 5.97, PDF pp. 79–80, 82, 2018]. Full detail is on Cross-Classification of Uses and Users of Energy.

Transport (box d) is further disaggregated by the six modes of Table 5.4 — road, rail, domestic aviation, domestic navigation, pipeline transport, and transport not elsewhere specified — each separately defined [IRES, Ch. V, paras 5.89–5.96, PDF pp. 80–82, 2018]. Full detail, including Table 5.4 in full, is on Transport.

Page map

Section	Page
Flow definitions (production through final consumption)	Production, Imports and Exports, International Bunkers, Stock Changes, Transformation, Losses, Energy Industries Own Use, Non-Energy Use, Final Consumption
Box 5.1, Table 5.1, industry descriptions	Energy Industries
ISIC Rev. 4 (as used in Tables 5.1 and 5.3)	International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities
SNA 2008 (as used in Box 5.1)	System of National Accounts
Table 5.2, producer/plant types, generation-source definitions	Electricity and Heat Production
Other energy producers	Other Energy Producers
Table 5.3, energy consumer groups	Energy Consumers
Figure 5.2, cross-classification of uses and users	Cross-Classification of Uses and Users of Energy
Table 5.4, transport modes	Transport

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