Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Physical energy flow accounts (PEFA) is one module of the European environmental-economic accounts - Regulation (EU) 691/2011 Annex VI. PEFA record the flows of energy (in terajoules) from the environment to the economy (natural inputs), within the economy (products), and from the economy back to the environment (residuals), using the accounting framework of physical supply and use tables.
PEFA provide information on energy flows arranged in a way fully compatible with concepts, principles, and classifications of national accounts – thus enabling integrated analyses of environmental, energy and economic issues e.g. through environmental-economic modelling. PEFA complement the traditional energy statistics, balances and derived indicators which are the main reference data source for EU energy policies.
This national metadata refers to the PEFA questionnaire delivered to Eurostat: data on supply (table A), use (table B), transformation use (table B1), end use (table B2) and emission-relevant use (table C), key indicators of physical energy flow accounts by NACE Rev. 2 activity (table D), and physical energy flow accounts totals bridging to energy balances totals (table E).
Physical energy flow accounts (PEFA) datasets have the following dimensions:
Supply and use tables (STK_FLOW): the elements of this dimension are the five tables detailing energy supply (questionnaire table A) and use; the total energy use (table B) is the sum of transformation use (table B1) and end use (table B2), and a certain part of it is emission relevant (table C).
Energy product (PROD_NRG): (not relevant for questionnaire table D and E) The flows of energy recorded in PEFA are broadly grouped into natural energy inputs (flows from environment to economy), energy products (flows within economy), and energy residuals (flows from economy to environment mainly). Each of these generic groups is further broken down. In total this dimension distinguishes 31 items which are regulated in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/172.
Classification of economic activities - NACE Rev.2 (NACE_R2): (not relevant for questionnaire table E) The supply and use of energy flows is broken down by NACE classification of economic activities. The aggregation level used is A*64 (i.e. 64 branches), fully compatible with ESA supply and use tables. Furthermore, this dimension includes private households, accumulation (e.g. product inventories), the rest of the world economy for imports and exports, and the environment.
Indicators (INDIC_PEFA): (only relevant for questionnaire tables D and E): Various key indicators that can be derived from the physical supply and use tables and so-called 'bridging-items' which present the various elements explaining the differences between the national totals as reported by PEFA vis-a-vis the national totals as reported by Eurostat's energy balances.
Geopolitical entity (GEO): EU Member States, EFTA countries, candidate countries, and potential candidates.
Period of time (TIME): Energy flow data are annual.
Unit (UNIT): Energy flows are reported in Terajoules.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The data set covers the entire national economy as defined in national accounts (ESA 2010, paragraph 2.04), as well as its physical relation to economies in the rest of the world and the environment.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Physical energy flow accounts (PEFA) are conceptually rooted in the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) which is an international statistical standard. The SEEA central framework provides standard concepts, definitions, classifications, accounting rules and tables for the provision of statistics on the environment and its relationship with the economy. PEFA constitute satellite accounts to the National Accounts (NA). Hence, the statistical concepts and definitions of PEFA are derived from those of NA. As far as applicable PEFA is also compliant with the statistical concepts and definitions internationally established for energy statistics: the International Recommendations for Energy Statistics (IRES). Three concepts are essential to PEFA: 1) The concept of three generic types of energy flows as established in SEEA, namely: a) natural energy inputs: flows from the natural environment into the economy such as fossil energy carriers in solid, liquid and gaseous form, biomass, solar radiation, kinetic energy in form of hydro and wind, geothermal heat etc.; b) energy products: output flows from production processes as defined in national accounts (ESA); typically products produced by extractive industries, refineries, power plants etc.; c) energy residuals: mainly energy in form of dissipative heat arising from the end use of energy products, flowing from the economy into the natural environment. 2) The accounting framework of (physical) supply and use tables as established in NA and SEEA; 3) The residence principle as established in NA and SEEA, i.e. PEFA records energy flows related to resident unit's activities, regardless where those occur geographically.
3.5. Statistical unit
Data refer to activities of resident economic units in the sense of SEEA CF 2012 and national accounts (ESA), including households.
3.6. Statistical population
The national economy is as defined in SEEA CF 2012 and national accounts (ESA); i.e. all economic activities undertaken by resident units (see ESA 2010, paragraph 2.04). A unit is said to be a resident unit of a country when it has a centre of economic interest in the economic territory of that country, that is, when it engages for an extended period (1 year or more) in economic activities in that territory.
3.7. Reference area
Belgium
3.8. Coverage - Time
2008-2021
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
The unit of measure is terajoule (TJ).
The data refer to the calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
PEFA are legally covered by Regulation (EC) No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts as amended by Regulation (EU) No. 538/2014. EEEA currently include six modules (air emissions accounts, environmentally related taxes by economic activity, economy-wide material flow accounts, environmental protection expenditure accounts, environmental goods and services sector accounts, and physical energy flow accounts).
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Law of 4 July 1962 on public statistics.
There are no dataset specific rules.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
No confidential data in the PEFA
8.1. Release calendar
There is no publicly available release calendar. PEFA data are released each year at the end of September after their approval by the scientific committee of the Institute for National Accounts and their ensuing delivery to Eurostat.
8.2. Release calendar access
non-existent
8.3. Release policy - user access
PEFA data are publicly available on the website of the Federal Planning Bureau. There is no specific information to the public (e.g. press release) about the publication of the data.
Yearly
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
non-existent
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Federal Planning Bureau, Institute for National Accounts, Physical Energy Flows Accounts 2008-2021, September 2023 (available in French and Dutch).
The PEFA data are also disseminated by Eurostat by means of the Eurobase website.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
For the calculations shared with the AEA compilation (Road transport data and residence principle adjustement), a detailed description of the methodology can be found in Janssen L. (2013), Air Emissions Accounts for Belgium – Methodology, May, Federal Planning Bureau, Brussels, 20 p.
Some information can be found in the PEFA quality report.
A witten methodology for the PEFA has been written but never published; A copy has been added in annexe. The part about air transport is no longer relevant. This part of the PEFA now rely on OCDE data on air transport and CRF national tables.
The quality report of the previous year can be found on the web https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1798247/6191537/Summary-PEFA-quality-reports.xlsx/f665be01-e411-0e8e-57f9-2d57aed7edac?t=1654595377452
There is no national quality documentation. Data are only approuved by the scientific committee of the national accounts institute.
11.1. Quality assurance
The PEFA standard tables contain in-built plausibility checks, while Eurostat provides a validation procedure.
The data are also validated by the scientific committee of the Institute for National Accounts.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
No specific management system is used. Quality is assured by the Scientific Committee of the National Accounts Institute.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The Belgian PEFA are mainly delivered to researchers working on Input-Output analysis.
The data are also delivered to a few universities for modelling purposes.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No measurement
12.3. Completeness
The PEFA tables are filled for the time period 2008-2021
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
In order to calculate the residence principle adjustments for inland water transport we use Eurostat’s iww_go_anave database which contains data expressed in million tonne-kilometres on operations of vessels of all nationalities on the Belgian territory as well as on the operations of Belgian vessels on foreign inland waters. However, the nationality of a vessel does not always correspond to the nationality of the operator of the vessel, while it is the nationality of the operator which ought to be used in order to perform the residence principle adjustments.
A comparable problem pertains to the adjustments made for maritime transport for which we use Eurostat’s mar_go_am database which contains data expressed in thousand tonnes on the gross weight of goods transported to and from main ports by nationality of vessel.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.4. Processing error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
14.1. Timeliness
The data set with reference year 2021 was ready early September 2023. This does not imply that at that moment the data were available to the public, though. This is the case only after approval by both the Scientific Committee and the Direction Committee of the Institute for National Accounts. As a consequence, the Belgian AEA are publicly available only at the end of September.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
Not applicable.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Data on PEFA are compiled according to international guidelines and insofar comparable. Application of the PEFA Builder tool ensures comparability to a certain extent.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Please see the table in 15.2.1.1.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.
15.2.1.1. Comparability - over time detailed
Please use below table for explaining b)-flags (breaks in time series):
Year (of the break in series)
Questionnaire table(s)
Columns (NACE Rev. 2 activity, households etc.)
Rows (natural energy inputs, energy products, energy residuals)
Reason for' break in time series'
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
No break in time series
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The main statistical output to be delivered for Belgium is the annual energy questionnaire.
The three main différences between thE questionnaire et the PEFA are - breakdown in NACE sector for the PEFA - Transport data, reported separately in the annual questionnaire, splitted into the sectors in the PEFA - PEFA build following the residence principle.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable; reported PEFA data are only annual.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
PEFA are builds in order to be fully compatible with the National accounts.
Data from the NA Supply and Use Tables are used to calculate maritime transport for the entire time series.
We use excise duties which are based on the NA system to allocate road transport emissions to the NACEs.
PEFA follow the residence principle.
15.3.3. Do you cooperate with national colleagues compiling AEA?
Yes, we are the same team from the same organisation. PEFA results are one of the inputs for the compilation of the AEA
15.3.4. Are there compilation elements that PEFA compilers jointly undertake with AEA compilers (e.g. distribution of road transport fuel use and emissions by NACE)?
Yes.
- The distribution of road transport fuel use (and rectification to the residence principle) by NACE (used as an input in both compilation)
- The distribution of water and air transport fuel use (and rectification to the residence principle) (used as a input in both compilation)
- Calculation of some allocation keys based on work and added value (to calculate NACE repartition, when regional data do not provide sufficiently detailed data)
15.3.5. Do you report in PEFA imports and exports according to the SEEA-CF concepts for trade in goods (see SEEA-CF section 3.3.3, paras. 3.121 ff., and para. 1.46)?
we extract imports and exports on a Belgian level calculated in the PEFA Builder from the IEA Questionnaires.
15.3.6. Do you perform cross-domain plausibility checks between your PEFA data on air transport versus OECD's data on CO2-emissions of air transport?
The OECD's data on CO2-emissions of air transport as the central input for calculation of air-transport fuel consumption.
Military air-transport is entirely based on regional data.
Yet no explicit check is made.
15.3.7. Do you perform cross-domain plausibility checks between PEFA data points and corresponding data points in energy statistics (see PEFA validation rules)?
No.
15.3.8. Do you perform cross-domain plausibility checks between PEFA data points and the corresponding data points in economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) (see PEFA validation rules)?
No.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Eurostat's validation procedures should ensure full internal consistency, at least for the mandatory data points.
This year we spent about 2.2 months on the production of the AEA.
Work is undertaken to shorten the time needed for compilation throught automation in Python.
17.1. Data revision - policy
When data are revised, the entire series is recalculated according to the new methodology.
Each year when data are published, a methodology paragraph explains what were the data revisions.
17.2. Data revision - practice
There were no specific revisions of data. The automation in Python was already used for the collection and compilation of data from the Brussel region, rectifying some man-made errors in the previous compilations.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.
18.1. Source data
Data sources used to produce physical energy flow accounts are described in the following sub-concepts.
18.1.1. Which are the main data sources you employ for the use of natural energy inputs (i.e. who is extracting)?
The three regional energy balances
18.1.2. Which are the main data sources you employ for supply of energy products (e.g. electricity, refinery products etc.)?
The three regional energy balances
18.1.3. Which are the main data sources you employ for the transformation use by energy transforming entities (NACE 2-digit divisions)?
The three regional energy balances + the Walloon detailed energy transformation report
18.1.4. Which are the main data sources you employ for the end use by end user entities (including non-energy use)?
The three regional energy balances
18.1.5. Which auxiliary data do you use to develop 'distribution keys' to assign energy use to the detailed breakdown of production activities (NACE 2-digit divisions) and categories of household consumption?
Economic data
- National accounts (Supply and use tables, excise duties on fuels)
- Regional accounts ( Value added, Employment, Disposable income)
- Households Budget Survey (fuel consumptions)
Transport data
- Road transport (Road transport model COPERT, Vehicle kilometre balance, Vehicle ownership register)
- Air transport (use table + Data from Air France annual reports + OECD database on carbon dioxide emissions for air transport)
- Water transport (database EuroStat : Transport by nationality of vessel + Gross weight of goods transported to/from main ports ; use table ; Belgian Oil balance)
18.1.6. Do you use the PEFA builder? If yes: for populating the PEFA Tables, or for control only?
We use the PEFA Builder for two specific parts : (a) we extract imports and exports on a Belgian level calculated in the PEFA Builder from the IEA Questionnaires. (b) we apply the Table C over Table B ratios from the PEFA Builder to our own Table B in order to calculate our proper table C.
18.1.7. Which data sources do you use to make adjustments for the residence principle?
- For Road Transport: See Vandernoot V. (2017), Description of Belgian methods of road transport allocation to NACE activities and households - Methodological notes, October, Federal Planning Bureau, Brussels, 7 p.: 171026_Road transport allocation to NACE and HH_Description of Belgian methods.pdf
- For inland waterways, we use the database “Transport by nationality of vessel” published by Eurostat. This dataset measures the inland waterways transport of goods in tonne-kilometres. It allows to filter out the tonne-kilometres performed by Belgian and foreign ships on the Belgian territory and by Belgian ships abroad. Based on these data, we calculate the ratios needed to adjust energy consumption for inland waterways transport to the residence principle.
- For maritime transport, data on international bunkers are combined with data from the use table (and prices) and data from the database on gross weight of goods transported to and from main ports, in order to calculate the use of fuel for sea transport by residents and non-residents.
- For Air transport the air emissions by resident air transport enterprises until 2013 are calculated directly on the basis of their fuel use, found in the Supply Use Tables. The monetary data are transformed into physical data on the basis of fuel prices. As of 2014 OECD data are available on emissions of carbon dioxide by air transport, with a distinction between residents and non-residents on the territory and abroad. This split of total emissions has been projected backwards to 2008 on the basis of the evolution of resident air transport fuel use in the period 2008-2013.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
yearly
18.3. Data collection
no surveys
18.4. Data validation
Validation checks are built into the PEFA questionnaire. These are applied, after which explanations are added in footnotes where necessary.
18.5. Data compilation
Main data source are de three regional energy balances.
Depending on the region, some manipulation must be done to disaggregate some data (housoholds heating/other for exemple)
Depending on the year of the data and the region, calculations must be done to comply with the guidelines on the reporting on auto-produced consumed heat.
Depending on the region, calculations based on the high or low voltage consumption are made to distribute data among an aggregated level of the tertiaire sector
Depending on the region, calculations must be done to obtain data related to bio-sourced fuel consumption in a format similar to the usual energy balance
Depending on the region and the year of the data, a few extrapolation/retropolation are done to fullfil some missing data.
Then three separated xlsx macros combined/allocate the fuel consumption to industrial sectors/households. There are three separated macros because the three regional energy balance do not share all their energy vectors or disaggregation levels.
Then allocation to NACE sectors are done as described in the fllowing sub-section, as well as rectification to the residence principle.
Data for Belgium are compiled as the sum of the three regions, to wich we add the energy production of off-shore wind turbines, and we calculate the imports exports through the PEFA builder.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not applicable.
18.5.2. Do you assign all supply of electricity and heat to NACE D35, or do you assign some to other NACE divisions than D35? Is the assignment you did fully aligned to the ESA monetary supply table submitted by your country?
The other NACE sectors assigned with heat supply are : A01, C16, C17, C18, C22, C23, C31-32 and E37-39.
The other NACE sectors assigned with eletricity supply are : A01, all C10 -> C33, all E, F, G46, I, J59-60, O, P, Q86, all R, S94, S96 and T.
The assignement is coherent yet not fully aligned with the ESA monetary supply table, as it is not used for calculation of the allocation keys. We rather used physical data as base input for the compilation of the PEFA.
Main differences should arise from the fact that the ESA monetary table encompasses only sold products. Any self-generated electricty consumed on site would not appear in this table, as it is not subject to any trade.
18.5.3. Which method do you use for the allocation of road transport energy use to NACE industries and households?
Road transport energyconsumption are taken from COPERT 5. In combination with excise duties data (calculated on the basis of the SUT), fuel consumption of the households (calculated on the basis of the Household Budget Survey) and the vehicle ownership database, the consumptions are allocated to the different users of different types of fuels.
18.5.4. Which method do you use for the allocation of energy use to detailed service industries (i.e. NACE 2-digit divisions 55-98)?
If there is no direct link with a specific NACE or household category, data are allocated by means of regional employment, regional value added, and product use (SUT).
18.5.5. How do you ensure a coherent assignment of energy use to economic activities (i.e. the use of energy products by a given production activity (NACE A*64 division) reported in PEFA must be coherent with the emissions reported in AEA)?
PEFA and AEA assignements are based on the same calculations (data are allocated by means of regional employment, regional value added, and product use (SUT)). Moreover, PEFA results are one key input in the compilation of the AEA.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
Physical energy flow accounts (PEFA) is one module of the European environmental-economic accounts - Regulation (EU) 691/2011 Annex VI. PEFA record the flows of energy (in terajoules) from the environment to the economy (natural inputs), within the economy (products), and from the economy back to the environment (residuals), using the accounting framework of physical supply and use tables.
PEFA provide information on energy flows arranged in a way fully compatible with concepts, principles, and classifications of national accounts – thus enabling integrated analyses of environmental, energy and economic issues e.g. through environmental-economic modelling. PEFA complement the traditional energy statistics, balances and derived indicators which are the main reference data source for EU energy policies.
This national metadata refers to the PEFA questionnaire delivered to Eurostat: data on supply (table A), use (table B), transformation use (table B1), end use (table B2) and emission-relevant use (table C), key indicators of physical energy flow accounts by NACE Rev. 2 activity (table D), and physical energy flow accounts totals bridging to energy balances totals (table E).
Physical energy flow accounts (PEFA) are conceptually rooted in the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) which is an international statistical standard. The SEEA central framework provides standard concepts, definitions, classifications, accounting rules and tables for the provision of statistics on the environment and its relationship with the economy. PEFA constitute satellite accounts to the National Accounts (NA). Hence, the statistical concepts and definitions of PEFA are derived from those of NA. As far as applicable PEFA is also compliant with the statistical concepts and definitions internationally established for energy statistics: the International Recommendations for Energy Statistics (IRES). Three concepts are essential to PEFA: 1) The concept of three generic types of energy flows as established in SEEA, namely: a) natural energy inputs: flows from the natural environment into the economy such as fossil energy carriers in solid, liquid and gaseous form, biomass, solar radiation, kinetic energy in form of hydro and wind, geothermal heat etc.; b) energy products: output flows from production processes as defined in national accounts (ESA); typically products produced by extractive industries, refineries, power plants etc.; c) energy residuals: mainly energy in form of dissipative heat arising from the end use of energy products, flowing from the economy into the natural environment. 2) The accounting framework of (physical) supply and use tables as established in NA and SEEA; 3) The residence principle as established in NA and SEEA, i.e. PEFA records energy flows related to resident unit's activities, regardless where those occur geographically.
Data refer to activities of resident economic units in the sense of SEEA CF 2012 and national accounts (ESA), including households.
The national economy is as defined in SEEA CF 2012 and national accounts (ESA); i.e. all economic activities undertaken by resident units (see ESA 2010, paragraph 2.04). A unit is said to be a resident unit of a country when it has a centre of economic interest in the economic territory of that country, that is, when it engages for an extended period (1 year or more) in economic activities in that territory.
Belgium
The data refer to the calendar year.
In order to calculate the residence principle adjustments for inland water transport we use Eurostat’s iww_go_anave database which contains data expressed in million tonne-kilometres on operations of vessels of all nationalities on the Belgian territory as well as on the operations of Belgian vessels on foreign inland waters. However, the nationality of a vessel does not always correspond to the nationality of the operator of the vessel, while it is the nationality of the operator which ought to be used in order to perform the residence principle adjustments.
A comparable problem pertains to the adjustments made for maritime transport for which we use Eurostat’s mar_go_am database which contains data expressed in thousand tonnes on the gross weight of goods transported to and from main ports by nationality of vessel.
The unit of measure is terajoule (TJ).
Main data source are de three regional energy balances.
Depending on the region, some manipulation must be done to disaggregate some data (housoholds heating/other for exemple)
Depending on the year of the data and the region, calculations must be done to comply with the guidelines on the reporting on auto-produced consumed heat.
Depending on the region, calculations based on the high or low voltage consumption are made to distribute data among an aggregated level of the tertiaire sector
Depending on the region, calculations must be done to obtain data related to bio-sourced fuel consumption in a format similar to the usual energy balance
Depending on the region and the year of the data, a few extrapolation/retropolation are done to fullfil some missing data.
Then three separated xlsx macros combined/allocate the fuel consumption to industrial sectors/households. There are three separated macros because the three regional energy balance do not share all their energy vectors or disaggregation levels.
Then allocation to NACE sectors are done as described in the fllowing sub-section, as well as rectification to the residence principle.
Data for Belgium are compiled as the sum of the three regions, to wich we add the energy production of off-shore wind turbines, and we calculate the imports exports through the PEFA builder.
Data sources used to produce physical energy flow accounts are described in the following sub-concepts.
Yearly
The data set with reference year 2021 was ready early September 2023. This does not imply that at that moment the data were available to the public, though. This is the case only after approval by both the Scientific Committee and the Direction Committee of the Institute for National Accounts. As a consequence, the Belgian AEA are publicly available only at the end of September.
Data on PEFA are compiled according to international guidelines and insofar comparable. Application of the PEFA Builder tool ensures comparability to a certain extent.
