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Indicator Specification
The majority of thermal generation is produced using fossil fuels but can also include biomass, wastes, geothermal and nuclear. Associated environmental impacts at the point of energy generation are mainly related to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. However, other environmental impacts, such as land use change, biodiversity loss, ground water pollution, oil spills in the marine environment, etc, occur during upstream activities of producing and transporting the primary resources or final waste disposal. Whilst the level of environmental impact depends on the particular type of fuel used and the extent to which abatement technologies are being employed, the greater the efficiency of the power plant, the lower the environmental impact for each unit of electricity produced (assuming that the increase in efficiency leads to an absolute decrease of fossil fuel input).
The energy efficiency of conventional thermal electricity production (which includes both public plants and autoproducers) is defined as the ratio of transformation outputs from conventional thermal power stations ( electricity and heat) to transformation input to conventional thermal power stations (%).
The output from conventional thermal power stations consists of gross electricity generation and also of any heat sold to third parties (Combined heat and power plants) by conventional thermal public power stations (public or main activity), district heating, and autoproducer thermal power stations.
The gross electricity generation is measured at the outlet of the main transformers, i.e. the consumption of electricity in the plant auxiliaries and in transformers is included. Public supply is defined as undertakings which generate electricity (and heat) for sale to third parties as their primary activity. They may be privately or publicly owned. Autoproducers are defined as undertakings which generate electricity wholly or partly for their use as an activity which supports their primary activity (e.g. industrial processes).
Fuel inputs include solid fuels (i.e. coal, lignite and equivalents), oil and other liquid hydrocarbons, gas, thermal renewables (industrial and municipal waste, wood waste, biogas and geothermal energy) and other non-renewable waste.
Fuel input and electrical and heat output are measured in thousand tonnes of oil equivalent (ktoe)
The indicator shows the efficiency of electricity and heat production from conventional thermal plants. A distinction is made between public conventional thermal plants (i .e. main activity producers), district heating conventional thermal plants and autoproducers conventional thermal plants. Public thermal plants mainly produce electricity (and heat) for public use. Autoproducers produce electricity (and heat) for private use, for instance in industrial processes.
The efficiency of electricity and heat production is an important factor since losses in transformation account for a substantial part of the primary energy consumption (see ENER 36). Higher efficiency of production therefore results in substantial reductions in primary energy consumption, hence reduction of environmental pressures due to avoided energy production.
However, the overall environmental impact of energy transformation has to be seen in the context of the type of fuel and the extent to which abatement technologies are used. Compliance with environmental legislation (for example the Large Combustion Plant Directive 2001/80/EC, the CARE package, etc) requires the application of a series of abatement technologies (e.g. to reduce SO2 emissions requires retrofitting the plant with flue-gas desulphurisation technology, carbon capture and storage to capture CO2 emissions, etc) increasing the energy consumption of the plant, thus reducing its efficiency. This is why it is important to promote highly efficient generation units, such as IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle), which can operate at higher efficiencies.
The European Commission published its proposal for an Energy Efficiency Directive on 22 June 2011. The proposed EED is expected to repeal two existing Directives: the Cogeneration Directive (2004/8/EC) and the Energy Services Directive (2006/32/EC).
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 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
Communication from the Commission; COM(2008) 771 final. The main objectives of this communication are to report on the current status of the combined heat and power generation (CHP or cogeneration), and to present possibilities for its development.
Detailed guidelines for the implementation and application of Annex II to Directive 2004/8/EC; 2008/952/EC. Guidelines for the calculation of the electricity from high-efficiency cogeneration.
Action Plan for Energy Efficiency: Realising the Potential ( COM(2006) 545). The Commission will develop minimum binding energy efficiency requirements for electricity generation facilities, heating and cooling for facilities operating with less than 20 megawatts of power, and possibly for more powerful facilities too (not published yet).
Directive on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from large combustion plants; Directive 2001/80/EC. Aims to control emissions of SOx, NOx and particulate matter from large (>50MW) combustion plants and hence favours the use of higher efficiency CCGT as opposed to coal plants.
The Directive 2012/27/eu on energy efficiency establishes a common framework of measures for the promotion of energy efficiency within the European Union in order to achieve the headline target of 20% reduction in primary energy consumption by 2020. Member States are requested to set indicative targets. It is up to the Member states whether they base their targets on primary energy consumption, final energy consumption, primary or final energy savings or energy intensity. Art.14 (Promotion of efficiency in heating and cooling) and Art.15 (Energy transformation, transmission and distribution) are directly relevant to the indicator.
Efficiency for autoproducers = transformation output in autoproducers conventional power stations divided by transformation input autoproducers conventional power stations
Qualitative information
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 statistics. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/statistics/metadata See also information related to the Energy Statistics Regulation http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/energy/introduction
Reliability, accuracy, robustness, uncertainty (at data level):
Indicator uncertainty (historic data)
The efficiency of electricity production is calculated as the ratio of electricity output to the total fuel input. However, the input to conventional thermal power plants cannot be disaggregated into separate input for heat and input for electricity production. Therefore the efficiency rate of electricity and heat production equals the ratio of both electricity and heat production to fuel input, which assumes there is an efficiency rate for heat production. Wherever efficiencies above 100% were detected, this has been mentioned in the notes to the figures and in texts with this indicator.
Overall scoring - historical data (1 = no major problems, 3 = major reservations):
Relevance: 1
Accuracy: 2
Comparability over time: 2
Comparability over space: 1
No methodology for gap filling has been specified. Probably this info has been added together with indicator calculation.
No methodology references available.
The efficiency of electricity production is calculated as the ratio of electricity output to the total fuel input. However, the input to conventional thermal power plants cannot be disaggregated into separate input for heat and input for electricity production. Therefore the efficiency rate of electricity and heat production equals the ratio of both electricity and heat production to fuel input, which assumes there is an efficiency rate for heat production.
Also, electricity data (unlike that for overall energy consumption) for 1990 refers to the western part of Germany only, so there is a break in the series from 1990-1992.
Strengths and weaknesses (at data level)
Reliability, accuracy, robustness, uncertainty (at data level):
Indicator uncertainty (historic data)
Efficiencies include electrical outputs and heat outputs: The efficiency of electricity production is calculated as the ratio of electricity output to the total fuel input. However, the input to conventional thermal power plants cannot be disaggregated into separate input for heat and input for electricity production. Therefore the efficiency rate of electricity and heat production equals the ratio of both electricity and heat production to fuel input, which assumes there is an efficiency rate for heat production.
Efficiencies above 100%: Wherever possible country specific data has been scrutinized for efficiencies above 100% which indicates incorrect input and/or output data. Wherever this has been detected, country data was removed from the indicators as mentioned in the notes to the figures and in texts with this indicator.
The data collection of inputs and ouputs and subsequent derivation of efficiencies for District Heating and Autoproducers power plants revealed efficiencies over 100% for a number of EU28 countries. These incorrect data was removed from the indicators presented in Figures 2b and 2c, see the notes to the Figures. However, these incorrect data are probably also included in the EU28 aggregated input and output data that were taken from Eurostat and used in the trend Figures 1a, 1b and 1c.
Overall scoring - historical data (1 = no major problems, 3 = major reservations):
Relevance: 1
Accuracy: 3
Comparability over time: 3
Comparability over space: 1
No uncertainty has been specified
Work specified here requires to be completed within 1 year from now.
Work specified here will require more than 1 year (from now) to be completed.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/efficiency-of-conventional-thermal-electricity-generation-3 or scan the QR code.
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