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For any question on data and metadata, please contact: Eurostat user support |
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1.1. Contact organisation | Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland |
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1.2. Contact organisation unit | Energy Statistics Unit |
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1.5. Contact mail address | Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Building 2100, Cork Airport Business Park, Cork, Ireland |
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2.1. Metadata last certified | 12/07/2022 | ||
2.2. Metadata last posted | 07/06/2022 | ||
2.3. Metadata last update | 07/06/2022 |
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3.1. Data description | ||||||||
European statistics on natural gas prices for household and final non-household customers. |
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3.2. Classification system | ||||||||
Internal Eurostat classification system based on annual natural gas consumption bands and tax levels. |
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3.3. Coverage - sector | ||||||||
Household sector and final non-household sector (industry, services, offices, agriculture, etc). |
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3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions | ||||||||
The prices are collected in national currencies per GJ and according to different bands of consumption. For the household sector, these bands are:
For the final non-household sector, the bands are:
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:
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:
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) but not published because it could be used to re-calculate some confidential values. Some of the taxes are refundable. Here is a description of them:
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3.5. Statistical unit | ||||||||
Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands. |
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3.6. Statistical population | ||||||||
Household customers: Data coming from 6 suppliers out of 8 and representing 94% of the household customers. Final non-household customers: Data coming from 7 suppliers out of 9 and representing 100% of the final non-household customers. |
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3.7. Reference area | ||||||||
The Irish price data covers the entire country. |
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3.8. Coverage - Time | ||||||||
Natural gas prices data for Ireland are available since 2007. |
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3.9. Base period | ||||||||
Not applicable. |
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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. |
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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). |
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6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements | |||
At EU level:
At national level:
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6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing | |||
At EU level:
At national level:
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7.1. Confidentiality - policy | |||
At EU level:
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7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment | |||
Published data should not allow identification of single consumers. Weighted averages are published only where there are at least three end-users in aggregate across all suppliers for each band, and no one end-user accounts for more than 80% of the volume and no two end users account for more than 90%. |
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8.1. Release calendar | |||
An Electricity and Gas Prices report is published twice a year to accompany each data collection. Publication dates are preannounced on a release calendar. |
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8.2. Release calendar access | |||
https://www.seai.ie/data-and-insights/seai-statistics/release-calendar/ |
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8.3. Release policy - user access | |||
Following the transmission of the statistics to Eurostat at the end of March and the end of September, a summary of the statistics is provided to interested parties such as the Ministry, suppliers, energy regulator and associations. The accompanying report is published later and is publicly available on the SEAI website. |
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Natural gas prices in Ireland are published on a semestrial basis on Eurostat's website. |
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10.1. Dissemination format - News release | |||
SEAI publishes on its website a bi-annual report in June and December titled “Electricity & Gas Prices in Ireland”. See https://www.seai.ie/publications/Price-Directive-2nd-Semester-2020-(ver2).pdf as an example. This is usually publicised on social media and occasionally also by way of a press release. |
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10.2. Dissemination format - Publications | |||
SEAI publishes on its website a bi-annual report in June and December titled “Electricity & Gas Prices in Ireland”. See https://www.seai.ie/publications/Price-Directive-2nd-Semester-2020-(ver2).pdf as an example. |
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10.3. Dissemination format - online database | |||
There is no online database. |
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10.3.1. Data tables - consultations | |||
None |
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10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access | |||
No access provided to microdata. |
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10.5. Dissemination format - other | |||
None |
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10.5.1. Metadata - consultations | |||
None |
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10.6. Documentation on methodology | |||
Methodology is published in Appendix 2 of the bi-annual publication. Electricity & Gas Prices in Ireland. Electricity & Gas Prices in Ireland - 2nd Semester (July – August) 2020, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, 2021.https://www.seai.ie/publications/Price-Directive-2nd-Semester-2020-(ver2).pdf |
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10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate | |||
Not applicable |
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10.7. Quality management - documentation | |||
Quality documentation produced under Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 only. |
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11.1. Quality assurance | |||
The quality of the data has been assessed through several self-assessments by the statistics team on a regular basis and corrections made when required. |
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11.2. Quality management - assessment | |||
The gas price survey captures most of the retail market (94% of households, 100% for non-households). All large gas suppliers respond. The data collection for Table 1 has been carried out since 2007 and so survey respondents are very familiar with the requirements and procedures have been put in place to extract the data twice a year. There are also in-house checks and so we can be assured of the quality of the data collected for Table 1. The data collection for Table 2 and Table 3 was introduced to gas suppliers in 2018. The data are of good quality, however suppliers may be asked to revise their data to ensure the value of the components falls between the two semesters. Consumption data in Table 4 has been collected since 2007 and can be verified against administrative data published by Ireland's energy regulator. |
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12.1. Relevance - User Needs | |||
Stakeholders include the Ministry, suppliers, energy regulator and associations. Weighted average natural gas prices feed into national measures of energy cost competitiveness. These were developed out of an action in the 2015 Energy White Paper to ensure policy choices are evidence-based with a focus on competitiveness, security and sustainability. Eurostat now publish consumption shares by band for each country, allowing the calculation of a single price per country. However, a single weighted average EU price calculated and published by Eurostat would also be of interest. Other users include the general public, particularly for household prices and this is often picked up by the media. |
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12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction | |||
User views and opinions are not currently formally collected. These data are used as part of a model to forecast prices The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and other government agencies regularly request and use the price data. Comments and feedback are noted. |
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12.3. Completeness | |||
The gas price data sets are complete. |
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12.3.1. Data completeness - rate | |||
All data cells are completed. |
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13.1. Accuracy - overall | |||
The overall accuracy of the gas price data can be considered very high. |
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13.2. Sampling error | |||
None |
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13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators | |||
No precision measures available. |
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13.3. Non-sampling error | |||
Information is included in the sub-concepts S.13.3.1-S.13.3.5. |
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13.3.1. Coverage error | |||
The market coverage for the household sector (all units) is greater than 94%. The market coverage for the final non-household sector is 100%. |
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13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate | |||
Not aware of any over-coverage in the data. |
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13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion | |||
100% of the data comes from a survey. |
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13.3.2. Measurement error | |||
Data is collected in Excel spreadsheets and transferred to a master calculation spreadsheet and errors may occur during transfer. Data is compared to previous semesters and queried when there is a significant price change or unexpected volume increase or decrease Error checking is included to verify each price component e.g. VAT is always 13.5% on household prices |
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13.3.3. Non response error | |||
Households
Non-households
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13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate | |||
Households
Non-households
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13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate | |||
0% |
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13.3.4. Processing error | |||
There may be some processing error due to the manual nature of the data collection i.e. collection through Excel spreadsheets. There also be some errors in the final price calculation, however these are assessed on a regular basis. |
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13.3.5. Model assumption error | |||
Not Applicable. |
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14.1. Timeliness | |||
Natural gas providers that participate in the national data collection are requested to provide the natural gas price data within 2 months 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. |
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14.1.1. Time lag - first result | |||
The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 92 days after the reference period. The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2019 was sent 91 days after the reference period. The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2020 was sent 92 days after the reference period. The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2020 was sent 90 days after the reference period. The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2021 was sent 92 days after the reference period. The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2021 was sent 90 days after the reference period. The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 92 days after the reference period. The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2019 was sent 91 days after the reference period. The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2020 was sent 99 days after the reference period. The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2020 was sent 90 days after the reference period. The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2021 was sent 89 days after the reference period. The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2021 was sent 90 days after the reference period. |
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14.1.2. Time lag - final result | |||
Version 2 of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2021 was sent 106 days after the reference period, 14 days after the first version and 14 day(s) after the mandatory deadline. Data was resubmitted to due late response from a supplier
Version 2 of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2021 was sent 106 days after the reference period, 17 days after the first version and 14 day(s) after the mandatory deadline. Data was resubmitted to due late response from a supplier
Version 2 of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2021 was sent 94 days after the reference period, 4 days after the first version and 4 day(s) after the mandatory deadline. Data was revised after discussions with Eurostat due to data in Table 2 not falling between semester 1 and semester 2 |
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14.2. Punctuality | |||
The legal deadline for submitting the questionnaires is the third month after the reference period. Some data suppliers do not submit in time for the deadline. We are working to put agreements in place to prevent this from happening in the future. In case a natural gas supplier does not provide the data on time, the national averages are still calculated and reported to Eurostat within the deadline of 3 months, but the data will be flagged with an appropriate flag. Once the micro data is complete, the final prices are reported to Eurostat without the flag. |
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14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication | |||
Supplier survey responses may be late due to the following reasons:
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15.1. Comparability - geographical | |||
Data is comparable between regions. |
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15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient | |||
Not applicable |
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15.2. Comparability - over time | |||
Gas prices can be directly compared over time. |
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15.2.1. Length of comparable time series | |||
Data is comparable from 2007. |
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15.3. Coherence - cross domain | |||
Not applicable |
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15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics | |||
Not applicable |
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15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts | |||
Not applicable |
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15.4. Coherence - internal | |||
Annual prices are coherent with the semestrial prices. |
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The response burden is significant for natural gas providers, in particular the detailed sub-component breakdown introduced under Regulation (EU) 2016/1952. No further details on respondent burden are currently available. Only data required for under Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 is collected. Administrative data is not available and so suppliers must be surveyed directly. In the case of some suppliers this data is not readily available from their accounts. Best estimates are accepted when exact details are not available. At our institute, the burden is about 5 person days for data collection in total covering households and non-households for each semester. |
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17.1. Data revision - policy | |||
Data may be revised if a supplier submits data after the deadline or revises historic data. If possible, Eurostat are informed of these revisions and pre-announcements are made. |
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17.2. Data revision - practice | |||
Provisional data might be sent to Eurostat in case not all natural gas suppliers have sent their micro data. |
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17.2.1. Data revision - average size | |||
Version 2 of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2019 was sent 107 days after the reference period. Version 4 of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 302 days after the reference period. These questionnaires were revised after errors were found in the data and suppliers were asked to resubmit. Households gas prices collection: 0.014680246 Non-households gas prices collection: 0.031635105 |
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18.1. Source data | |||
Gas price data for household and final non–household consumers are collected from natural gas suppliers. The suppliers use their central billing system to extract average price data for each consumption band components and sub-components as well as relative consumption figures. |
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18.2. Frequency of data collection | |||
Gas prices for household and final non-household consumers are collected from gas suppliers every 6 months. |
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18.3. Data collection | |||
The gas price data is reported by the gas suppliers from Ireland by using excel based, dedicated questionnaires. Returns are made by email. Please see sample questionnaire in the annexes. Annexes: Supplier Survey |
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18.4. Data validation | |||
Before sending the questionnaires to Eurostat, the data is validated by using in-house checks and the built-in validation tools of the Eurostat questionnaires, as well as by visual inspection for completeness. In-house checks include comparing with previous semester returns for price and volume and relative deviation between suppliers. Values outside reasonable limits are queried back to the supplier(s). |
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18.5. Data compilation | |||
For household and non-household consumers, the calculation of the national average prices is weighted by using the individual consumption figures for each gas supplier in each consumption band. |
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18.5.1. Imputation - rate | |||
0% |
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18.6. Adjustment | |||
Not applicable. |
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18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment | |||
Seasonable adjustments are not carried out. |
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