Electricity and Heat Production

Statistics on electricity and heat — SIEC section 7 (Electricity) and section 8 (Heat) — are collected according to the type of producer and the type of generating plant [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.45, PDF p. 74, 2018]. Because SIEC does not disaggregate either product by production process (see Electricity and Heat), it is Chapter V’s producer/plant typology and generation-source definitions that capture the distinction between hydro, wind, solar, thermal and other generation methods [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.15, PDF p. 36, 2018].

Producer types

Three types of producer are distinguished:

• Main activity producers — units that produce electricity or heat as their principal activity. Formerly known as public utilities, these enterprises may be privately or publicly owned.
• Autoproducers (electricity) — units that produce electricity, but for which production is not their principal activity.
• Autoproducers (heat) — units that produce heat for sale, but for which production is not their principal activity. Deliveries of fuel for heat generated by a unit for its own purposes are classified as final consumption, not as transformation inputs.

[IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.45, PDF p. 74, 2018]

Any own use by an autoproducer in support of electricity production and/or heat-for-sale production should be reported under energy industries own use, in the same way the inputs to and output of electricity and heat sold figure under transformation. Energy consumed in support of the autoproducer’s principal economic activity is reported under final consumption instead — or again under EIOU if the autoproducer happens itself to be an energy industry, such as an oil refinery [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.46, PDF p. 74, 2018].

Plant types

Three types of generating plant are also distinguished:

• Electricity plants — plants producing only electricity, obtained directly from natural sources (hydro, geothermal, wind, tidal, marine, solar energy) or from fuel cells, or from the heat obtained by combusting fuels or from nuclear reactions.
• CHP plants — plants that produce both heat and electricity from at least one generating unit in the plant, sometimes called “co-generation” plants.
• Heat plants — plants (including heat pumps and electric boilers) designed to produce heat only, for delivery to third parties. Fuel deliveries for heat generated by an autoproducer for its own purposes are classified as final consumption.

[IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.47, PDF p. 74, 2018]

Table 5.2 — Main activity producers and autoproducers of electricity and heat

Type of producer	Electricity plant	CHP plant	Heat plant
Main activity producers	Report all production and all fuel used	Report all electricity and heat produced and all fuel used	Report all heat produced and all fuel used
Autoproducer		Report all electricity produced and heat sold with corresponding fuel used	Report heat sold and corresponding fuel used

Source: IEA Electricity Questionnaire reporting instruction.

[IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.48, Table 5.2, PDF p. 75, 2018]

Pumped storage

Pumped storage plants are plants where electricity is used during periods of lower demand to pump water into reservoirs for subsequent release and electricity generation during periods of higher demand. Less electricity is eventually produced than is consumed to pump the water into the higher reservoir [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.49, PDF p. 75, 2018]. Pumped storage plants also appear as their own row in Table 5.1’s energy industries.

Generation source and technology definitions

The different types of technology/process for generating electricity and heat are defined as follows [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.50, PDF p. 75, 2018].

Electricity

• Solar photovoltaics (PV) electricity — electricity produced from solar photovoltaics, i.e. the direct conversion of solar radiation through photovoltaic processes in semiconductor devices (solar cells), including concentrating photovoltaic systems [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.51, PDF p. 75, 2018].
• Solar thermal electricity — electricity produced from solar heat (both concentrating and non-concentrating) [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.52, PDF p. 75, 2018].
• Wind electricity — electricity produced from devices driven by wind [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.53, PDF p. 75, 2018].
• Hydroelectricity — electricity produced from devices driven by fresh, flowing or falling water [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.54, PDF p. 75, 2018].
• Wave electricity — electricity produced from devices driven by the motion of waves [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.55, PDF p. 75, 2018].
• Tidal electricity — electricity generated from devices driven by tidal currents or the differences of water level caused by tides [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.56, PDF p. 75, 2018].
• Other marine electricity — electricity generated from devices exploiting marine energy sources not elsewhere specified, such as non-tidal currents, temperature differences and salinity gradients in seas, or salinity differences between sea and fresh water [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.57, PDF p. 75, 2018].
• Geothermal electricity — electricity generated from the heat from geothermal sources [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.58, PDF p. 75, 2018].
• Nuclear electricity — electricity generated by nuclear heat [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.59, PDF p. 75, 2018].
• Electricity from chemical processes — electricity generated from heat recovered from a non-combusting chemical reaction [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.60, PDF p. 75, 2018].
• Electricity from other sources — electricity produced from sources not elsewhere specified, including fuel cells [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.61, PDF p. 75, 2018].

Heat

• Solar heat — heat from solar thermal, concentrating and non-concentrating. Concentrating solar thermal produces high-temperature heat that can be transformed to generate electricity, drive chemical reactions, or be used directly in industrial processes. Non-concentrating solar thermal produces low-temperature heat usable for space heating, cooling, water heating, district heating and industrial processes [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.62, PDF p. 75, 2018].
• Geothermal heat — heat extracted from the earth, sourced from radioactive decay in the crust and mantle and heat from the earth’s core (shallow geothermal sources also include heat gained through direct sunlight and rain); usually extracted as heated water or steam [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.63, PDF p. 76, 2018].
• Nuclear heat — for energy-statistics purposes, the heat obtained from a working fluid (possibly steam) in the nuclear reactor. A working fluid is the substance circulated in a closed system to convey heat from the heat source to its point(s) of use [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.64, PDF p. 76, 2018].
• Heat and/or electricity from combustible fuels — production of heat and/or electricity from the combustion of fuels capable of igniting or burning, i.e. reacting with oxygen to produce a significant rise in temperature [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.65, PDF p. 76, 2018].
• Heat from chemical processes — recovered heat generated in the chemical industry by exothermic reactions other than combustion, used for steam-raising or other energy purposes [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.66, PDF p. 76, 2018].
• Heat from other sources — heat from sources not elsewhere specified [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.67, PDF p. 76, 2018].

Related

• IRES Chapter V — Energy Flows — the chapter digest this page supports
• Energy Industries — Table 5.1, where “Electricity, CHP and heat plants” and “Pumped storage plants” are the first two rows
• Energy Industries Own Use — where autoproducer own use in support of production is reported
• Final Consumption — where an autoproducer’s principal-activity energy use is reported instead
• Electricity — the SIEC product this material supplies the production-side detail for
• Heat — the SIEC product this material supplies the production-side detail for