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Indicator Assessment
In 2009 only 71.6% of the total primary energy consumption in the EU-27 reached the end users. Transformation and distribution (T&D) losses decreased slightly since 1990, from 29.1% in 1990 to 28.4% in 2009. T&D losses were 28.6% in 2008. About 5% represented the energy-sector’s own consumption of energy.
Structure of the efficiency of transformation and distribution of energy from primary energy consumption to final energy consumption, EU-27, 2009
Note: The figure shows the structure of primary consumption vs final consumption and energy loses
Eurostat. Energy statistics:% share of Gross Inland Energy Consumption (100900) for 2000 Solid Fuels, 3000 Crude oil and Petroleum Products, 4000 Gas, 5100 Nuclear Energy, 6000 Imports/exports electricity, 5500 Renewable Energies, 7100 Industrial Wastes. All in ktoe. % share of Gross Inland Energy consumption (100900) for Transformation losses (101000 Transformation input minus 101100 Transformation output), 101400 Distribution losses, 101300 consumption – energy sector, 101600 final non-energy consumption, 101800 final energy consumption – industry, 101900 final energy consumption – transport, 102010 final energy consumption – households, 102030 final energy consumption – agriculture (plus 102035 final energy consumption fisheries), 102035 final energy consumption – services, 102040 final energy consumption – other sectors.Webpage: http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=nrg_100a&lang=en
Energy losses and energy availability for end users in 2009 (% of primary energy consumption)
Note: How to read the figure: % Share of 101300 (consumption – energy sector), 101400 (distribution losses), 101500 (energy available for final consumption), Transformation losses (101000 Transformation input minus 101100 Transformation output) within the sum of the above four elements for each Member State
Eurostat. Energy statistics: % Share of 101300 (consumption – energy sector), 101400 (distribution losses), 101500 (energy available for final consumption), Transformation losses (101000 Transformation input minus 101100 Transformation output) within the sum of the above four elements for each Member State. Webpage: http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=nrg_100a&lang=en
[1] If the municipal waste is used for direct utilisation of heat (or in CHP plants), the efficiency can be high in the order of 90%. If the waste however is used for only electricity production, the efficiency is only about 30%. However, these plants are valued primarily because they offer an alternative for waste disposal so efficiency is not the main goal.
[2] In the statistics recorded by Eurostat the ratio of primary energy to electricity production from nuclear is fixed at 1/3.
Structure of CO2 emissions from thermal power plants in EU-27, 2009
Note: How to read the figures: Left-top: % Share of fuel input (TJ) by type (liquid, solid, gaseous, biomass and other fuels) into 1A1a public electricity and heat production. Left-bottom: Implied emission factor for each fuel above (tCO2 / TJ), taken from EEA (2009) Right-top: Average efficiency of transformation in EU-27. Numerator = 101109 Output from district heating plants + 101121 Output from public thermal power stations Denominator = 101009 Input to district heating plants + 101021 Input to public thermal power stations Right-bottom: % Share of CO2 emissions by fuel type (liquid, solid, gaseous, biomass and other fuels into 1A1a public electricity and heat production)
EU-27 Share of primary energy by fuel type and, share of final energy consumption by sector and energy losses
Share of energy losses, own consumption of the energy industry and final energy available for final consumption in primary energy, by Member State
Structure in the efficiency of transformation and distribution of energy from primary energy consumption to final energy consumption, EU-27, 2009
Structure of CO2 emissions from thermal power plants in EU-27, 2009
CO2 emission savings per year for EU-27 at different transformation efficiencies compared to current 2009 efficiency
Energy data: Mtoe
CO2 emissions: Mt
Environmental context
Not all primary energy (gross inland energy consumption) is available to be utilised as useful final energy for the end-consumer due to various losses that occur within the energy system (in particular transformation losses in the production of electricity and heat). In 2009, 77% of the gross inland consumption in European Union came from fossil fuels (see ENER 26). The magnitude of these losses is an important indication of the overall environmental impact of the energy system (e.g. GHG emissions, air pollution, environmental and health impacts associated with upstream activities of resource extraction and waste disposal). The overall environmental impact has to be seen in the context of the type of fuel and the extent to which abatement technologies are used (see ENER 06). Because Europe imports large amounts of fossil fuels to meet the final energy demand (see ENER 12), a significant part of the environmental impact associated with the resource extraction remains outside the realm of European policy.
Policy context
Current pricing mechanisms in Europe for transmission and distribution services do not necessarily target directly improvements in efficiency of these networks. However, there are a number of policy initiatives aiming at increasing the efficiency in transformation (listed below).
On 8 March 2011, the European Commission adopted the Communication "Energy Efficiency Plan 2011" (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0109:FIN:EN:PDF) aims to boost the cost-effective and efficient use of energy in the EU. One of the priority areas is making power generation and distribution more efficient. The Commission is also aiming to develop minimum efficiency requirements for new electricity, heating and cooling capacity to further reduce transformation losses. (DG TREN, 2007b).
Proposal for a Directive on energy efficiency and repealing Directives 2004/8/EC and 2006/32/EC [COM(2011)370, 22/06/2011]. Council adopted on 6 April 2009 the climate-energy legislative package containing measures to fight climate change and promote renewable energy. This package is designed to achieve the EU's overall environmental target of a 20% reduction in greenhouse gases, a 20% increase in energy efficiency and a 20% share of renewable energy in the EU's total energy consumption by 2020.The climate action and renewable energy (CARE) package includes the following main policy documents:
Regulation (ec) no 443/2009 of the European parliament and of the Council setting emission performance standards for new passenger cars as part of the community’s integrated approach to reduce CO2 emissions from light-duty vehicles
As part of a recent review of industrial emissions legislation the Commission has proposed (COM/2007/0844 final) a single new Directive, the Industrial Emissions Directive. This Directive has been adopted by the European Parliament on 7 July 2010 and is pending final legal scrutiny before coming into force. It recasts seven existing Directives related to industrial emissions (including the Large Combustion Plant and IPPC Directives) into a single clear and coherent legislative instrument focused on installations bigger than 20 MW. It is expected that these new market structures will encourage switching to cheaper and more efficient technologies.
No targets have been specified
The coding (used in the Eurostat New Cronos database) and specific components of the indicators are:
Figure 1
% share of Gross Inland Energy Consumption (100900) for 2000 Solid Fuels, 3000 Crude oil and Petroleum Products, 4000 Gas, 5100 Nuclear Energy, 6000 Imports/exports electricity, 5500 Renewable Energies, 7100 Industrial Wastes. All in ktoe.
% share of Gross Inland Energy consumption (100900) for Transformation losses (101000 Transformation input minus 101100 Transformation output), 101400 Distribution losses, 101300 consumption – energy sector, 101600 final non-energy consumption, 101800 final energy consumption – industry, 101900 final energy consumption – transport, 102010 final energy consumption – households, 102030 final energy consumption – agriculture (plus 102035 final energy consumption fisheries), 102035 final energy consumption – services, 102040 final energy consumption – other sectors.
Figure 2
% Share of 101300 (consumption – energy sector), 101400 (distribution losses), 101500 (energy available for final consumption), Transformation losses (101000 Transformation input minus 101100 Transformation output) within the sum of the above four elements for each Member State.
Figure 3
Data from EEA (2008)
Numerator = 101109 Output from district heating plants + 101121 Output from public thermal power stations
Denominator = 101009 Input to district heating plants + 101021 Input to public thermal power stations
Figure 4
Data from EEA (2008)
Steps
a) Implied Emissions Factor for all 1A1a public electricity and heat production of 83.5 tCO2 / TJ for all fuels excluding biomass
b) Current average efficiency of transformation as calculated for Figure 3
c) Estimated CO2 output for EU = total fuel input (TJ) * current average efficiency of transformation
d) New fuel input at higher efficiency (fixing output) = Estimated CO2 output for / new efficiency
e) CO2 emissions at new efficiency = Implied Emissions Factor * New fuel input at higher efficiency (fixing output) / 1000
f) CO2 saving = current CO2 emissions (from EEA (2008) - CO2 emissions at new efficiency
Geographical coverage:
EU-27 plus Norway, Turkey, Croatia
Temporal coverage:
1990-2009
Data collected annually.
Eurostat definitions for energy statistics http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/nomenclatures/index.cfm?TargetUrl=LST_NOM&StrGroupCode=CONCEPTS&StrLanguageCode=EN
Eurostat metadata for energy statistics http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/energy/data/database
Official data (national total and sectoral emissions) reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and under the EU Monitoring Mechanism and EIONET. For the EU-27, these data are compiled by EEA in the European greenhouse gas inventory report: http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/european-union-greenhouse-gas-inventory-2011
No methodology for gap filling has been specified. Probably this info has been added together with indicator calculation.
No methodology references available.
Scenario analysis always includes many uncertainties and the results should thus be interpreted with care.
Strengths and weaknesses (at data level)
Data have been traditionally compiled by Eurostat through the annual Joint Questionnaires, shared by Eurostat and the International Energy Agency, following a well established and harmonised methodology. Methodological information on the annual Joint Questionnaires and data compilation can be found in Eurostat's web page for metadata on energy statisticshttp://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/energy/data/database
CO2 emissions data is officially reported following agreed procedures. e.g. regarding source/sector split under the EU Monitoring Mechanism DECISION No 280/2004/EC.
Reliability, accuracy, robustness, uncertainty (at data level):
The estimate of imported/domestic CO2 emissions uses an average EU-27 Implied Emission Factors (tCO2/TJ) for solid, liquid and gaseous fuels.
The IPCC believes that the uncertainty in CO2 emission estimates from fuel use in Europe is likely to be less than ± 5%. Total GHG emission trends are likely to be more accurate than the absolute emission estimates for individual years. The IPCC suggests that the uncertainty in total GHG emission trends is ± 4% to 5%. Uncertainty estimates were calculated for the EU-15 for the first time in EEA (2005). The results suggest that uncertainties at EU-15 level are between ± 4% and 8% for total EU-15 greenhouse gas emissions. For energy related greenhouse gas emissions the results suggest uncertainties between ± 1 % (stationary combustion) and ± 11% (fugitive emissions). For public electricity and heat production specifically, the uncertainty is estimated to be ± 3%. For the new Member States and some other EEA countries, uncertainties are assumed to be higher than for the EU-15 Member States because of data gaps.
Indicator uncertainty (scenarios)
Scenario analysis always includes many uncertainties and the results should thus be interpreted with care.
No uncertainty has been specified
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/energy-efficiency-in-transformation/energy-efficiency-in-transformation-assessment-3 or scan the QR code.
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