Federal Statistical Office.

G24 Physical Environmental-Economic Accounts.

 Statistisches Bundesamt, Gustav-Stresemann-Ring, 11 65189 Wiesbaden, Germany.

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).

The PEFA questionnaire is available on Eurostat's website: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/environment/methodology

Physical energy flow accounts (PEFA) datasets have the following dimensions:

1. 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).
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Geopolitical entity (GEO): EU Member States, EFTA countries, candidate countries, and potential candidates. 
6. Period of time (TIME): Energy flow data are annual.
7. Unit (UNIT): Energy flows are reported in Terajoules.

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.

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.

Germany.

2010 to 2021.

Not applicable.

The unit of measure is terajoule (TJ).

The data refer to the calendar year.

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).

Not applicable.

Not relevant because aggregated data are used for compilation only.

Not applicable.

There exists a release calendar accessible by the statistical offices of the Federation and the Länder. Data are published annually on August, 31.

Release calendar is not publicly accessible.

Data are published annually no later than August 31 on our webpage. Data are accessible for all users at the same time.

Yearly.

We publish press releases related to PEFA at irregular intervals.

Data are published online as national format with additional tables on our website as excel file (www.destatis.de/ugr).

Publisher: Statistisches Bundesamt, Gustav-Stresemann-Ring, 11 65189 Wiesbaden; Year: 2023; "Statistischer Bericht - Umweltökonomische Gesamtrechnungen (UGR) - Energiegesamtrechnung - 2010 bis 2021".

Only available in German.

https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Umwelt/UGR/energiefluesse-emissionen/Publikationen/Downloads/statistischer-bericht-ugr-energiegesamtrechnung-5850014217005.xlsx

A database access is primed for future data releases (including previous years).

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Documentations on methodology are published online as pdf file.

Publisher: Statistisches Bundesamt, Gustav-Stresemann-Ring, 11 65189 Wiesbaden.

"Umweltökonomische Gesamtrechnungen - Methode der Energiegesamtrechnung", 2019:

https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Umwelt/UGR/energiefluesse-emissionen/Publikationen/Downloads/methode-energiegesamtrechnung-5851316199004.html

"National methodology on transport calculation", 2021:

https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Umwelt/UGR/verkehr-tourismus/Publikationen/Downloads/ugr-methode-berechnungen-verkehr-umwelt-5851320219004.html

Both are only available in German.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

A general quality report on environmental-economic accounts is published online as pdf file.

Publisher: Statistisches Bundesamt, Gustav-Stresemann-Ring, 11 65189 Wiesbaden.

"Qualitätsbericht – Umweltökonomische Gesamtrechnungen (UGR)", 2022.

https://www.destatis.de/DE/Methoden/Qualitaet/Qualitaetsberichte/Umwelt/ugr.pdf

Only available in German.

During the compilation process, we do cross-checks with internal and external reference data. The main reference source for benchmark values is the national energy balance.

In general, the compilation of PEFA runs in a stable routine. We estimate that the majority of results is high quality. For some parts, e.g. commercial and public services sector, we use auxiliary data to distribute an aggregated benchmark value. Data quality significantly depends on the auxiliary data used and the assumption for the distribution (e.g. correlation between energy use and amount of employees).

Our data are used by the German Federal Government, research institutes, universities and interested citizens.

User needs are very heterogeneous: While some require only key indicators and very aggregated information, others would like to receive data on a very detailed level. We check thoroughly which level of disaggregation is reasonable based on the data sources used. Occasional user inquiries that go beyond that level of detail have to be denied.

We determine user satisfaction by observing the incoming user inquiries carefully. Meetings and congresses are held at irregular intervals with selected users. Here we explain our procedures and present our publications. National users may have further necessities that go beyond our transmission to Eurostat (e.g. energy use for production of a specific good, more detailed disaggregation of NACE divisions).

Yes, the data is complete.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Accuracy depends on the accuracy of primary statistics. A lower accuracy is true for the energy consumption of the commercial and public services sector which is not covered by periodical official statistics. A comprehensive study on weaknesses in non-official energy statistics and ways to improve the statistics was conducted by three research institutes in June 2015 on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics:

"Verfahren zur regelmäßigen und aktuellen Ermittlung des Energieverbrauchs in nicht von der amtlichen Statisstik erfassten Bereichen",

Münster Juni 2015; EEFA (Münster), ZSW (Stuttgart), DBI Gas- und Umweltttechnik (Leipzig), Project no: I C 4 - 18/14.

Available only in German.

Not applicable to statistical accounts.

Not applicable to statistical accounts.

Not applicable to statistical accounts.

Not applicable to statistical accounts.

Not applicable to statistical accounts.

Not applicable to statistical accounts.

Not applicable to statistical accounts.

Not applicable to statistical accounts.

Not applicable to statistical accounts.

Not applicable to statistical accounts.

Not applicable to statistical accounts.

Not applicable to statistical accounts.

We publish national data on Physical Energy Flow Accounts (PEFA) in August (t+19 months).

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Data on PEFA are compiled according to international guidelines and insofar comparable. Application of the PEFA Builder tool ensures comparability to a certain extent.

Not applicable.

Please see the table in 15.2.1.1.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Please use below table for explaining b)-flags (breaks in time series):

We ensure cross domain coherence with AEA by using unified data sources and harmonised methods. Differences can occur because AEA and PEFA must be coherent with different reference values.

Cross domain coherence of economy-wide material flow accounts and energy statistics is evaluated according to the PEFA Validation rules.

Economy-wide material flow accounts (MFA) and PEFA use the same main data source for the extraction of fossil energy products. Differences can occur because MFA includes energy products for non-energy purpose from other data sources.

Not applicable; reported PEFA data are only annual.

Data are consistent with ESA supply and use tables. Supply and use of energy are broken down by NACE and delineated according to the residence principle.

Yes.

PEFA tables are used for allocation of emissions to NACE in AEA. Specifically, we use data on transformation use in industrial power plants and data on end use of energy in the commercial and public services sector to distribute the respective emissions in these areas. Energy use and air emissions from transport are jointly determined.

Yes. We adjust the energy use for transport (water, road and air) to the residence principle.

Yes, according to PEFA validation rule 33.

Yes, according to PEFA validation rule 34.

Yes, according to PEFA validation rule 35.

Eurostat's validation procedures should ensure full internal consistency, at least for the mandatory data points.

No burden for respondents, as we do not conduct a survey. Personnel costs arise for research on data sources, methodological development and for the compilation of results.

Recently, the compilation process has been implemented as an automated processing allowing a reduction of time effort and improvement of replicable results. Along with this implementation methodological adjustments have been performed (see 19).

We do not publish preliminary data. We revise data only if revised data sources or methodological adjustments are present.

We revise the whole time series, by using revised sources. Revised data are published simultaneously with data on the most recent year.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Data sources used to produce physical energy flow accounts are described in the following sub-concepts.

National energy balances.

National energy balances and official energy statistics.

National energy balances and official energy statistics (fuel consumption in power plants (auto producers).

National energy balances, official energy statistics (energy consumption in manufacturing) and official petroleum statistics (BAFA).

For manufacturing industries, we use national energy statistics. For other economic activities we use employee’s data (e.g. national accounts, census), scientific studies of energy use of commercial and public services sector and data provided by the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt).

No.

Aviation: on basis of an extra processing of transport statistics by airlines (domestic, foreign) and own estimates.

Sea transport: on basis of monetary data on bunkering and data on domestic bunkering by ships (in a breakdown of national and foreign ships).

Road transport: on the basis of energy use by residents calculated from Transport Emission Model (TREMOD) provided by ifeu-Institut, Heidelberg.

 Annually.

 Collection and processing of aggregated statistical data from different internal and external sources (cf. 18.1).

We validate our data through comparisons with the previous year, checking of time series consistency and cross-checks with internal and external reference data, e.g. other modules of the environmental-economic accounts.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Energy supply from industrial power plants is assigned to the corresponding NACE division based on national energy statistics, thus it is not directly aligned to the ESA monetary supply table.

We use the Transport Emission Model (TREMOD) provided by ifeu-Institut, Heidelberg. The Transport model (national concept) is calculated according to vehicle types, fuel types and Information of private or the branch of commercial vehicle owners.

We applied a new calculation method from reporting year 2017 onwards. The new model is no longer based on the vehicle fleet but on detailed data on the mileage and energy consumption of 39 industrial sectors (based on NACE classification) and private households in Germany from TREMOD.

The model contains 12 vehicle types and 8 types of fuel.

Based on the production values, the 39 commercial branches are further split into 72 sectors. For the derivation of the data according to the residence concept, key figures of the residents' mileage are used separately with respect to vehicle type as well as gasoline and diesel vehicles. The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) publishes the statistics "Traffic in kilometres" annually starting from 2014 (determination of residents' mileage based on data from the main inspections of vehicles). The average fuel consumption of the vehicles from TREMOD is used to calculate the energy consumption of residents. The method now is based on consumption and not on sales. We calculate now domestic consumption and consumption by residents. The associated emissions result from the corresponding factors.

The new method guarantees a harmonization of the emissions calculation in PEFA and the emissions reported in AEA, because the data source has been harmonized.

We allocate energy use on the basis of different sources (see 18.1.5).

Coherence between PEFA and AEA is ensured because they are produced in close cooperation. However, small differences appear because AEA and PEFA must be coherent with different reference values.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Methodological changes compared to previously submitted questionnaire: energy supply from industrial power plants is now assigned to the corresponding NACE division and no longer to D35 (see 18.5.2).

The method for the distribution of energy use of commercial and public services sector has been updated.