The energy balance is the most complete statistical accounting of energy products and their flow in the economy. The energy balance allows users to see the total amount of energy extracted from the environment, traded, transformed and used by end-users. It also allows seeing the relative contribution of each energy carrier (fuel, product). The energy balance allows studying the overall domestic energy market and monitoring impacts of energy policies. The energy balance offers a complete view on the energy situation of a country in a compact format, such as on energy consumption of the whole economy and of individual sectors.
The energy balance presents all statistically significant energy products (fuels) of a country and their production, transformation and consumption by different types of economic actors (industry, transport, etc.). Therefore, an energy balance is the natural starting point to study the energy sector. The energy balance is a multi-purpose tool to:
- Provide comprehensive information on the energy supply and demand in order to understand the energy security situation, the effective functioning of energy markets and other relevant policy goals, as well as to formulate energy policies;
- Provide the essential basis for calculating various indicators, including indicators monitoring progress towards Energy Union and Europe 2020 targets (energy efficiency indicators, share of renewable energy, energy dependency, etc.);
- Ensure comparability of statistical information between different reference periods and between different countries/regions;
- Provide data for the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions from fuel combustion;
- Serve as a quality tool to ensure completeness, consistency and comparability of energy statistics;
- Provide an input for modelling and forecasting.
The concept of an energy balance is an accounting framework for the compilation, reconciliation and understanding of data on all energy products entering, exiting and used within a country (territory).
