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.
Energie-Control Austria für die Regulierung der Elektrizitäts- und Erdgaswirtschaft (E-Control)
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Regulation & Competition
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Rudolfsplatz 13A 1010 Wien Austria
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
6 July 2022
2.2. Metadata last posted
6 July 2022
2.3. Metadata last update
15 June 2022
3.1. Data description
European statistics on natural gas prices for household and final non-household customers.
3.2. Classification system
Internal Eurostat classification system based on annual natural gas consumption bands and tax levels.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Household sector and final non-household sector (industry, services, offices, agriculture, etc).
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The prices are collected in national currencies per GJ and according to different bands of consumption.
For the households sector, these bands are:
D1: Customers consuming less than 20 GJ.
D2: Customers consuming 20 GJ or more but less than 200 GJ.
D3: Customers consuming 200 GJ or more.
For the final non-households sector, the bands are:
I1: Customers consuming less than 1000 GJ.
I2: Customers consuming 1000 GJ or more but less than 10000 GJ.
I3: Customers consuming 10000 GJ or more but less than 100000 GJ.
I4: Customers consuming 100000 GJ or more but less than 1000000 GJ.
I5: Customers consuming 1000000 GJ or more but less than 4000000 GJ.
I6: Customers consuming 4000000 GJ or more.
There exist 2 different levels of disaggregation for semestrial and annual prices:
1- Semestrial prices:
These prices are reported twice a year and are divided in 3 levels:
Level 1 prices: Prices excluding taxes and levies.
Level 2 prices: Prices excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and levies.
Level 3 prices: Prices including all taxes and levies.
2- Annual prices:
These prices are reported once a year together with the data for the second semester and are divided into the following components and taxes:
Energy and supply: commodity price for natural gas paid by the supplier or the price of natural gas at the point of entry into the transmission system, including, if applicable, the following end-user costs: storage costs plus costs relating to the sale of natural gas to final customers.
Network cost: transmission and distribution tariffs, transmission and distribution losses, network costs, after-sale service costs, system service costs and meter rental and metering costs.
Value added taxes (VAT): as defined in Council Directive 2006/112/EC.
Renewable taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the promotion of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and CHP generation.
Capacity taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to strategic stockpiles, capacity payments and energy security; taxes on natural gas distribution; stranded costs and levies on financing energy regulatory authorities or market and system operators.
Environmental taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to air quality and for other environmental purposes; taxes on emissions of CO2 or other greenhouse gases. This component includes the excise duties.
All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous four categories: support for district heating; local or regional fiscal charges; island compensation; concession fees relating to licences and fees for the occupation of land and public or private property by networks or other devices.
In addition to these elements, the network cost is split into the respective shares of transmission and distribution. The relative share of consumption in the different consumption bands is reported by the countries and used to calculate the single national natural gas prices (weighted averages for consumer bands IA-IF and DA-DE) and the consumption of the households and non-households for each consumer band.
Some of the taxes are refundable. Here is a description of them:
Band
Name of the tax
component in which it is reported
Recoverable portion of the component
IA
excise duty
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IB
excise duty
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IC
excise duty
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IE
excise duty
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IF
excise duty
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IA
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax
100%
IB
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax
100%
IC
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax
100%
ID
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax
100%
IE
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax
100%
IF
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax
100%
IA
CO2 levy
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IB
CO2 levy
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IC
CO2 levy
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
ID
CO2 levy
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IE
CO2 levy
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IF
CO2 levy
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
In the table below are the taxes reported in "All other taxes"
Band
Name of the tax
DA
municipality charge
DB
municipality charge
DC
municipality charge
DD
municipality charge
DE
municipality charge
IA
municipality charge
IB
municipality charge
IC
municipality charge
ID
municipality charge
IE
municipality charge
IF
municipality charge
The natural gas levy has been reduced from 1 May 2022 to 31 December 2023 from 0,066 €/m³ to 0,01196 €/m³.
3.5. Statistical unit
Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands.
3.6. Statistical population
Household customers: Data coming from 43 suppliers out of 43 and representing 100% of the household customers.
Final non-household customers: Data coming from 57 suppliers out of 57 and representing 100% of the final non-household customers.
3.7. Reference area
The Austrian price data covers the entire country.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Natural gas prices data for Austria are available since 2017.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Prices are reported in national currency per GJ. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes the prices in EURO and PPS (purchasing power parity) and do the conversion to kWh. Relative shares of sub-component of the network component and consumption volumes are reported in percentages.
For semestrial prices, the reference periods are from January to June for semester 1 and from July to December for semester 2.
For annual prices, the reference period is the whole calendar year (from January to December).
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
At EU level:
Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices and repealing Directive 2008/92/EC (Text with EEA relevance).
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2169 of 21 November 2017 concerning the format and arrangements for the transmission of European Statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance).
Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1734 of 14 November 2018 granting derogations to the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Spain, the Italian Republic and the Republic of Cyprus as regards the provision of statistics pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (notified under document C(2018) 7465) (Text with EEA relevance).
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/803 concerning the content of quality reports on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance).
Eurostat does not share the data collected with other organisation apart from its usual dissemination chanel (Eurostat's database, statistic explained articles and press or news release) .
At national level:
Data is sent to Eurostat.
Data is sent to IEA.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
At EU level:
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 11 March 2009, on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities.
E-Control has established quality guidelines. As an instance they include a 4-eyes principle.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
The quality of the natural gas prices is assessed to be high.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Users in Austria are suppliers, companies who compare their own prices with the published prices. Data are also used from researchers and consultants. They use it for site analyses. Also international agencies use the electricity prices for cross-country comparisons.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
We did not perform any satisfaction survey on these datasets.
12.3. Completeness
The datasets are complete.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
100%
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The overall accuracy of the natural gas price data with its components and sub-components can be considered to be high with the exception of the relative shares of the transmission and distribution cost with are estimated. The most common error is the aggregation of the metering points to one customer to be assigned to consumption bands. There are discussions with the companies to reduce this bias.
13.2. Sampling error
Not relevant as 100% of the household customers and 100% of the non-household customers are covered.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not relevant
13.3. Non-sampling error
Information is included in the sub-concepts S.13.3.1-S.13.3.5.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Given the high percentage of the population covered, all kinds of unit are well represented.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
We are not aware of any over-coverage in the data.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
100%
13.3.2. Measurement error
Some wrong entries cannot be detected by checks. Sometimes data are delivered too late. Then they must be estimated.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not relevant
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
61 out of 61 suppliers, 100% of the target population, responded to the survey.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
All suppliers provided information to all items.
13.3.4. Processing error
A very small part of the consumers is classified in the wrong consumer band. In this case the prices are reported in the wrong consumer band. The impact of the total prices is negligible.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not Applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Natural gas providers that participate in the national data collection are requested to provide the natural gas price data within 51 days after the reference period. After arrival, the statistical office checks the micro-data for correctness, consistency and completeness and national averages are calculated and reported to Eurostat during the third month after the reference period.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2022 was sent 89 days after the reference period.
The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2022 was sent 90 days after the reference period.
The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2023 was sent 91 days after the reference period.
The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2023 was sent 88 days after the reference period.
The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2024 was sent 92 days after the reference period.
The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2024 was sent 90 days after the reference period.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Version 2 of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2023 was sent 272 days after the reference period.
These corrections were due to revised data of suppliers.
14.2. Punctuality
The legal deadline for submitting the questionnaires is the third month after the reference period.
98.4% of all national natural gas providers report the price data on time to our institute.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
The first versions of the gas price questionnaires were all sent on time.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
There is no problem of comparability between countries.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable
15.2. Comparability - over time
2nd semester 2017 - transition to census instead of sample survey
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
The data is comparable since 2017.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not applicable
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable
15.4. Coherence - internal
Annual prices are coherent with the semestrial prices.
It is not possible for us to estimate the cost and burden for 1 particular project.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Usually the last period will be revised, if companies have sent new data for this period in the meantime.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Data are revised if suppliers are sending the prices after the deadline or they are revising the prices. In this case the revision is sent with the next data transmission.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Version 2 of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2023 was sent 272 days after the reference period.
Due to updated reports from companies after reclassification of their customers the prices were recalculated for 2023S1.
18.1. Source data
Data are collected from suppliers a network operators. They use their billing system to extract the average price data and the respective sub-components for each consumption band.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Natural gas prices for household and non-household consumers are collected from natural gas providers every 6 months.
18.3. Data collection
The natural gas price data are reported from all suppliers and network operators in Austria by using Excel questionnaires provided by our institute. All components of the bill are asked either on the supplier side or on the network operator side. The individual components are summarize to the asked sub-components of the Eurostat questionnaire.
18.4. Data validation
The data is validated by using the build-in validation tools of the Eurostat questionnaires. They are also compared with the previous period.
18.5. Data compilation
Sometimes small suppliers report to late. In this case the prices of the prices of the last period are imputed. The national average prices are calculated by using the individual market share of each supplier and each network operator in each consumption band.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
< 5%
18.6. Adjustment
Not available
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Seasonable adjustments are not carried out.
European statistics on natural gas prices for household and final non-household customers.
15 June 2022
The prices are collected in national currencies per GJ and according to different bands of consumption.
For the households sector, these bands are:
D1: Customers consuming less than 20 GJ.
D2: Customers consuming 20 GJ or more but less than 200 GJ.
D3: Customers consuming 200 GJ or more.
For the final non-households sector, the bands are:
I1: Customers consuming less than 1000 GJ.
I2: Customers consuming 1000 GJ or more but less than 10000 GJ.
I3: Customers consuming 10000 GJ or more but less than 100000 GJ.
I4: Customers consuming 100000 GJ or more but less than 1000000 GJ.
I5: Customers consuming 1000000 GJ or more but less than 4000000 GJ.
I6: Customers consuming 4000000 GJ or more.
There exist 2 different levels of disaggregation for semestrial and annual prices:
1- Semestrial prices:
These prices are reported twice a year and are divided in 3 levels:
Level 1 prices: Prices excluding taxes and levies.
Level 2 prices: Prices excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and levies.
Level 3 prices: Prices including all taxes and levies.
2- Annual prices:
These prices are reported once a year together with the data for the second semester and are divided into the following components and taxes:
Energy and supply: commodity price for natural gas paid by the supplier or the price of natural gas at the point of entry into the transmission system, including, if applicable, the following end-user costs: storage costs plus costs relating to the sale of natural gas to final customers.
Network cost: transmission and distribution tariffs, transmission and distribution losses, network costs, after-sale service costs, system service costs and meter rental and metering costs.
Value added taxes (VAT): as defined in Council Directive 2006/112/EC.
Renewable taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the promotion of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and CHP generation.
Capacity taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to strategic stockpiles, capacity payments and energy security; taxes on natural gas distribution; stranded costs and levies on financing energy regulatory authorities or market and system operators.
Environmental taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to air quality and for other environmental purposes; taxes on emissions of CO2 or other greenhouse gases. This component includes the excise duties.
All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous four categories: support for district heating; local or regional fiscal charges; island compensation; concession fees relating to licences and fees for the occupation of land and public or private property by networks or other devices.
In addition to these elements, the network cost is split into the respective shares of transmission and distribution. The relative share of consumption in the different consumption bands is reported by the countries and used to calculate the single national natural gas prices (weighted averages for consumer bands IA-IF and DA-DE) and the consumption of the households and non-households for each consumer band.
Some of the taxes are refundable. Here is a description of them:
Band
Name of the tax
component in which it is reported
Recoverable portion of the component
IA
excise duty
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IB
excise duty
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IC
excise duty
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IE
excise duty
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IF
excise duty
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IA
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax
100%
IB
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax
100%
IC
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax
100%
ID
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax
100%
IE
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax
100%
IF
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax
100%
IA
CO2 levy
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IB
CO2 levy
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IC
CO2 levy
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
ID
CO2 levy
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IE
CO2 levy
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
IF
CO2 levy
Environmental taxes
Some companies are partly exempted (see Energy Tax Rebate Act).
In the table below are the taxes reported in "All other taxes"
Band
Name of the tax
DA
municipality charge
DB
municipality charge
DC
municipality charge
DD
municipality charge
DE
municipality charge
IA
municipality charge
IB
municipality charge
IC
municipality charge
ID
municipality charge
IE
municipality charge
IF
municipality charge
The natural gas levy has been reduced from 1 May 2022 to 31 December 2023 from 0,066 €/m³ to 0,01196 €/m³.
Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands.
Household customers: Data coming from 43 suppliers out of 43 and representing 100% of the household customers.
Final non-household customers: Data coming from 57 suppliers out of 57 and representing 100% of the final non-household customers.
The Austrian price data covers the entire country.
For semestrial prices, the reference periods are from January to June for semester 1 and from July to December for semester 2.
For annual prices, the reference period is the whole calendar year (from January to December).
The overall accuracy of the natural gas price data with its components and sub-components can be considered to be high with the exception of the relative shares of the transmission and distribution cost with are estimated. The most common error is the aggregation of the metering points to one customer to be assigned to consumption bands. There are discussions with the companies to reduce this bias.
Prices are reported in national currency per GJ. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes the prices in EURO and PPS (purchasing power parity) and do the conversion to kWh. Relative shares of sub-component of the network component and consumption volumes are reported in percentages.
Sometimes small suppliers report to late. In this case the prices of the prices of the last period are imputed. The national average prices are calculated by using the individual market share of each supplier and each network operator in each consumption band.
Data are collected from suppliers a network operators. They use their billing system to extract the average price data and the respective sub-components for each consumption band.
Natural gas prices in Austria are published on a semestrial basis on Eurostat's website.
They are also published on the E-Control's homepage on a semestrial basis and in the Energy Prices and Taxes report of the IEA on a quarterly basis.
Natural gas providers that participate in the national data collection are requested to provide the natural gas price data within 51 days after the reference period. After arrival, the statistical office checks the micro-data for correctness, consistency and completeness and national averages are calculated and reported to Eurostat during the third month after the reference period.
There is no problem of comparability between countries.
2nd semester 2017 - transition to census instead of sample survey
