Indicator Assessment

Energy intensity in the service sector

Indicator Assessment

Prod-ID: IND-304-en

Also known as: ENER 024

Published 19 Sep 2011 Last modified 11 May 2021

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Topics: Energy

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Over the period 1997-2008, the energy intensity (energy consumption per unit of value added) in the service sector decreased in the EU-27 by 1.2 %/year on average, showing a relative decoupling between energy consumption and activity (value added). Over the period 1990-2008, per capita energy consumption in the service sector increased by 16% in the EU-27 and 19% in EEA countries, at annual growth rates of 0.8 and 1% respectively, with very different trends across member states. Over the period 1997-2008, the electricity consumption per employee in EU-27 increased by 12%, at an annual growth rate of 1%, due to increased use of air conditioning in southern countries and of IT and other electrical equipment. This led to an increase in the electricity intensity of the service sector in EU-27 (electricity consumption per unit of value added) of 3% over the same period of time, at an annual growth rate of 0.3%.

Rationale
The energy consumption in the service sector consists mainly of energy consumption in buildings. The indicator tracks progress made in reducing the energy consumption per unit of activity (measured in terms of value added or number of employees) in the service sector in EU-27. Reducing the energy intensity of the service sector (as defined above), will have a positive impact on the environment due to reduced environmental pressures associated with the production of the energy input. The indicator is complementary to ENER 21.

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Electricity intensity and electricity consumption per employee in services

Note: Unit consumption per employee is the ratio between the energy consumption (total or electricity) and the number of employees (salaries employed in full time). The energy (or electricity) intensity is the ratio between the energy (electricity) consumption and the value added expressed in constant Euros (M€2000)

Data source:

ODYSSEE. Energy consumption, number of employees, electricity consumption and the value added expressed in constant Euros (M€2000).

The Odyssee database is available at http://www.odyssee-indicators.org/

The access is restricted to project partners or subscribers

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Electricity intensity in the service sector

Data source:

ODYSSEE database. Electricity intensity of tertiary (MWh/M€2005ppp). The Odyssee database is available at http://www.odyssee-indicators.org/ The access is restricted to project partners or subscribers

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Energy consumption per employee and energy intensity in services

Data source:

ODYSSEE database (last update : October 2010). The Odyssee database is available at http://www.odyssee-indicators.org/ The access is restricted to project partners or subscribers

EFor all the EU countries, data are extracted from the ODYSSEE database (last update in October 2010) and are provided by national energy agencies or their representatives. For EU, the data sources are the following:

Electricity consumption : source ODYSSEE data base sum of 27 countries as there is a discontinuity in Eurostat in 2006
Number of employees : sum of data of the 27 countries, from ODYSSEE database

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Over the period 1997-2008, the final energy intensity of the service sector has decreased in the EU-27, at an annual average rate of 1.2%. The development was stronger over the period 1997-2000 when the energy intensity decreased by 2%/year, compared to 1.1%/year between 2000 and 2007 and an increase by 0.3% in 2008. Such a trend shows a relative decoupling between energy consumption and economic growth: the value added of the service sector increased by 2.8%/year while its energy consumption only increased by 0.9%/year between 1997 and 2007 (and +1.1% in 2008). (Figure 1).
Over the period 1997 – 2008, the energy consumption per employee decreased by around 0.5%, and especially between 1997 and 2000 (-1.1%/year). From 2000 to 2007, there is a slowdown in the decrease of the unit consumption (-0.4%/year) and an increase in 2008 (+0.4%) (Figure 1)
From 1997 to 2008, the electricity consumption per employee increased by around 1%/year, due to increased use of air conditioning in southern countries and IT and other electric equipment. The progression was much faster before 2000 than after (1.6%/year compared to 0.7%/year). In 2008, the unit consumption increased by 1.3%, due to a rapid increase of the electricity consumption of 2.7%. The electricity intensity per value added also increased but slower (0.3%/year over 1997-2008). The progression was mainly observed from 1997 to 2000 (+0.7%/year) and rather stable between 2000 and 2007; in 2008 the electricity intensity increased by 1.2%. The different trends in electricity intensity, one measured per employee and one per value added, reflects the fact that the growth in value added was stronger than growth in employment in the service sector (productivity gains) (Figure 2).
The electricity intensity per unit of value added decreased however in about half of the countries since 1997, showing a decoupling between electricity consumption and activity. This lower growth of electricity use is somehow explained by energy efficiency improvements and structural changes in the sector that are unfortunately difficult to capture due to data limitations in that sector. In southern countries, the electricity intensity tends to increase rapidly due to air conditioning (Figure 3).

% change in services final energy consumption per person, 1990-2008

Note: Based on the ratio : energy consumption / population (%/year calculated on the period 1990-2008)

Data source:

EUROSTAT Energy consumption: Final energy consumption – Services. Reference of the table : nrg_100a. Code of the dataserie : 102035. Website: http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=nrg_100a&lang=en

EUROSTAT Data on population (by sex and age on 1st January of each year). Reference of the table : populat. Code of the dataserie : demo_pjan

Website: http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/setupModifyTableLayout.do

Population

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From 1990 to 2008, the energy consumption per capita in the service sector has increased by 19% in EEA countries and 16% in EU-27, at an annual average rate of 1% for EEA and 0.8% for EU-27. The progression was much faster since 2000 (2.2%/year for EEA and 1.9%/year for EU-27) (Figure 4).

Large differences can be observed in the variation of the energy consumption per capita among EEA member countries. In countries like Denmark, Sweden or UK, there was almost no increase compared to 1990, while in others, mainly southern countries, the increase exceeds 150% compared to 1990 levels (e.g. Slovenia, Portugal, Romania, Greece, Spain or Turkey). In few countries, there was an actual decrease in energy consumption per capita in the sector compared to 1990 (e.g. Germany, Switzerland, UK or some new member countries as Estonia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Slovakia and Lithuania) that may be explained partly by structural changes in the sector and energy savings (Figure 4).

Supporting information

Indicator definition

Services energy consumption covers all energy consumed in services for space heating, water heating, cooking and electricity. Energy consumption is corrected from climate to avoid yearly climatic corrections.

Unit consumption per employee is the ratio between the energy consumption (total or electricity) and the number of employees (salaries employed in full time)

The energy (or electricity) intensity is the ratio between the energy (electricity) consumption and the value added expressed in constant Euros (M€2000)

Units

Energy consumption: Mtoe

Unit consumption par employ: ton/employe

Energy intensity: koe/€2000

Rationale

Justification for indicator selection

The energy consumption in the service sector consists mainly of energy consumption in buildings. The indicator tracks progress made in reducing the energy consumption per unit of activity (measured in terms of value added or number of employees) in the service sector in EU-27. Reducing the energy intensity of the service sector (as defined above), will have a positive impact on the environment due to reduced environmental pressures associated with the production of the energy input. The indicator is complementary to ENER 21 and ENER 16

Scientific references

No rationale references available

Policy context and targets

Context description

The indicator tracks progress made in reducing the energy consumption per unit of activity in the service sector in EU-27. Specific policies are not available for this sector.

Targets

No targets have been specified

Methodology

Methodology for indicator calculation

Methodology of calculation : energy consumption at normal climate

E = En x (1-K)+ En x K x (DD/DDn)
or En = E x 1/ (1-K x (1-DD/DDn))
with K= r x a with r = heating share for normal year and a = share of heating dependant on degree days (e.g. 90%)

Geographical coverage:
The Eurostat database covers all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Croatia and Turkey. Odyssee database covers EU-27 plus Norway and Croatia.

Temporal coverage:
2000-2009 for energy intensities and unit energy consumption (due to non available or reliable data for new EU countries)

Methodology and frequency of data collection:
Data collected annually in the framework of the ODYSSEE MURE project

Methodology of data manipulation:

Change in tertiary final energy consumption per person: (final energy consumption per country2007 /population per country2007) / (final energy consumption per country1990 /population per country1990) – 1

Energy (electricity) intensity : energy (electricity) consumption / value added in euro, at constant prices of 2000
Energy (electricity) unit consumption: energy (electricity) consumption / number of employees

Methodology for gap filling

Electricity consumption : source ODYSSEE data base sum of 27 countries as there is a discontinuity in Eurostat in 2006; for countries for which there are data gaps in ODYSSEE, the missing values are interpolated using Eurostat data; the growth rate of Eurostat is applied to the values provided by the country to make the interpolation.

Methodology references

No methodology references available.

Uncertainties

Methodology uncertainty

No uncertainty has been specified

Data sets uncertainty

Not all data is available for all countries. Availability for data on years earlier than 2007, is higher.
Odyssee data is recently updated (August 2009)

The reliability of total services energy consumption and related CO2 emissions is reliable due to trustworthy statistics underlying it. Division of the energy consumption among activities (heating / cooking / cooling etc.) is less accurate, because it is based on assumptions.

Rationale uncertainty

No uncertainty has been specified

Data sources

Population
provided by Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat)
Statistics on population
provided by Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat)
Basic energy statistics
provided by
ODYSSEE database (dataset URL is not available)
provided by Enerdata Research Service

Other info

DPSIR: State
Typology: Efficiency indicator (Type C - Are we improving?)

Indicator codes

ENER 024

EEA Contact Info info@eea.europa.eu

Permalinks

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Older versions

14 Sep 2010 - Energy intensity in the service sector

Geographic coverage

Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus Czechia Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden United Kingdom

Temporal coverage

1990-2008

For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/energy-intensity-in-the-service-sector/assessment-1 or scan the QR code.

PDF generated on 19 Apr 2024, 01:04 AM

Dates

First draft created:

05 Jul 2011, 09:45 AM

Publish date:

19 Sep 2011, 12:08 PM

Last modified:

11 May 2021, 11:42 AM

Topics

Topics: Energy