Energy Consumers

In energy statistics, energy consumers consist of economic units (enterprises and households) that act as final users of energy: they use energy products for energy purposes (heat raising, transportation and electrical services) and/or for non-energy purposes. Economic units belonging to the energy industries that use energy to produce other energy products are excluded from this group — by convention, their energy use is not part of final consumption, but is instead considered separately as energy industries own use [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.79, PDF p. 78, 2018].

It is recommended that countries identify, as far as feasible and applicable, the groups of energy consumers listed in Table 5.3. To facilitate the collection of energy statistics and their integration with other economic statistics, Table 5.3 also gives a correspondence between each consumer group and the relevant ISIC Rev. 4 categories [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.80, PDF p. 78, 2018] — recommendations tracker row V/5.80.

The scope of each consumer group is defined by the scope of the economic units belonging to the listed ISIC Rev. 4 categories, except “households,” which includes all households in their capacity as final consumers, not only those engaged in economic activities (as ISIC itself covers) [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.81, PDF p. 78, 2018, footnote 49].

Table 5.3 — Main categories of energy consumers

Energy consumers	Correspondence to ISIC Rev. 4
Manufacturing, construction and non-fuel mining industries
Iron and steel	ISIC Group 241 and Class 2431. Note that the consumption of energy products in coke ovens and blast furnaces is excluded, as these plants are considered part of the energy industries.
Chemical and petrochemical	ISIC Divisions 20 and 21. Note that the consumption of energy products by plants manufacturing charcoal or carrying out the enrichment/production of nuclear fuels (both classified in ISIC 2011) is excluded, as these plants are considered part of the energy industries.
Non-ferrous metals	ISIC Group 242 and Class 2432
Non-metallic minerals	ISIC Division 23
Transport equipment	ISIC Divisions 29 and 30
Machinery	ISIC Divisions 25, 26, 27 and 28
Mining and quarrying	ISIC Divisions 07 and 08, and Group 099, excluding the mining of uranium and thorium ores (Class 0721) and the extraction of peat (Class 0892).
Food and tobacco	ISIC Divisions 10, 11 and 12
Paper, pulp and print	ISIC Divisions 17 and 18
Wood and wood products (other than pulp and paper)	ISIC Division 16
Textile and leather	ISIC Divisions 13, 14 and 15
Construction	ISIC Divisions 41, 42 and 43
Industries not elsewhere specified	ISIC Divisions 22, 31 and 32
Household	ISIC Divisions 97 and 98
Commerce and public services	ISIC Divisions 33, 36–39, 45–96 and 99, excluding ISIC 8422
Agriculture, forestry	ISIC Divisions 01 and 02
Fishing	ISIC Division 03
Not elsewhere specified (including defence activities)	ISIC Class 8422

[IRES, Ch. V, Table 5.3, PDF p. 79, 2018]. The table lists 18 consumer groups: 13 subdivisions of the manufacturing, construction and non-fuel mining super-category, plus household; commerce and public services; agriculture and forestry; fishing; and a not-elsewhere-specified group.

Consumption of energy by defence activities (ISIC 8422) is recorded in the balance as “not elsewhere specified,” since it includes all defence consumption of energy products, including for transport and bunkering [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.82, PDF p. 79, 2018].

Petrochemical plants as energy consumers

Petrochemical plants are a notable example of a unit whose energy transformation activity is not enough to classify it as an energy industry — since transformation is not their principal activity, petrochemical plants are, as a group, treated as energy consumers instead, classified under “Chemical and petrochemical” in Table 5.3 above, even though the transformation they perform is still reflected in the energy balance [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.74, PDF p. 77, 2018].

Related

• IRES Chapter V — Energy Flows — the chapter digest this page supports
• Energy Industries — the complementary Table 5.1 taxonomy for producers, distribution and transformation units
• Final Consumption — the flow category energy consumers are the users of
• Energy Industries Own Use — the flow that excludes energy industries’ own energy use from this “consumers” category
• Transformation — petrochemical plants perform transformation but are classified as energy consumers
• Cross-Classification of Uses and Users of Energy — Figure 5.2, which cross-classifies energy consumers (as a user group) against the five use categories
• International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities — the classification Table 5.3 cross-references