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.
Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Building 2100, Cork Airport Business Park, Cork, Ireland
1.6. Contact email address
Restricted from publication
1.7. Contact phone number
Restricted from publication
1.8. Contact fax number
Restricted from publication
2.1. Metadata last certified
14 July 2022
2.2. Metadata last posted
7 June 2022
2.3. Metadata last update
7 June 2022
3.1. Data description
European statistics on electricity prices for household and final non-household customers.
3.2. Classification system
Internal Eurostat classification system based on annual electricity 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 reported in national currencies per kWh and according to different bands of consumption.
For the household sector, these bands are:
DA: customers consuming less than 1000 kWh.
DB: customers consuming 1000 kWh or more but less than 2500 kWh.
DC: customers consuming 2500 kWh or more but less than 5000 kWh.
DD: customers consuming 5000 kWh or more but less than 15000 kWh.
DE: customers consuming 15000 kWh or more.
For the final non-household sector, the bands are:
IA: customers consuming less than 20 MWh.
IB: customers consuming 20 MWh or more but less than 500 MWh.
IC: customers consuming 500 MWh or more but less than 2000 MWh.
ID: customers consuming 2000 MWh or more but less than 20000 MWh.
IE: customers consuming 20000 MWh or more but less than 70000 MWh.
IF: customers consuming 70000 MWh or more but less than 150000 MWh.
IG: customers consuming 150000 MWh 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: generation, aggregation, balancing energy, supplied energy costs, customer services, after-sales management and other supply costs.
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 capacity payments, energy security and generation adequacy; taxes on coal industry restructuring; taxes on electricity 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.
Nuclear taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the nuclear sector, including nuclear decommissioning, inspections and fees for nuclear installations.
All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous five 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 electricity 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:
Band
Name of the tax
component in which it is reported
Recoverable portion of the component
IA-IF
Value added taxes (VAT)
Value added taxes (VAT)
100%
In the table below are the taxes reported in "All other taxes"
Band
Name of the tax
DA-DE
Market Operator Charges (charged on a per MWh basis, on energy bought in the Single Electricity Market). The SEMO imposes a Market Operator charge to recover the costs of administering the SEM to all electricity users on a cent per kilowatt hour (c/kWh) basis. Better Energy Charges Fuel Poverty
IA-IF
Market Operator Charges (charged on a per MWh basis, on energy bought in the Single Electricity Market). The SEMO imposes a Market Operator charge to recover the costs of administering the SEM to all electricity users on a cent per kilowatt hour (c/kWh) basis. Better Energy Charges Fuel Poverty
3.5. Statistical unit
Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands.
3.6. Statistical population
Household customers: Data coming from 11 suppliers out of 13 and representing 98% of the household customers.
Final non-household customers: Data coming from 12 suppliers out of 13 and representing 96% of the final non-household customers.
3.7. Reference area
The Irish price data covers the entire country.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Electricity price data for Ireland are available from 2007.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Prices are reported in national currency per kWh. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes the prices in EURO and PPS (purchasing power parity). 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 of 17 May 2019 concerning the technical requirements regarding 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).
At national level:
National Law on energy prices S.I. No. 578/2014 - European Communities (Reporting of Electricity and Natural Gas Prices charged to Industrial Customers) Regulations 2014
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
At EU level:
Eurostat does not share the data collected with other organisation apart from its usual dissemination channel (Eurostat's database, statistic explained articles and press or news release).
At national level:
Data is sent to Eurostat.
Detailed raw data is not shared.
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.
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%.
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.
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.
Electricity prices in Ireland are published on a semestrial basis on Eurostat's website.
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.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
The electricity price survey captures most of the retail market (98% of households, 96% for non-households). All large electricity 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 the main components in Table 2 has also been carried out since 2007 and here again we are confident of the quality of the data. The sub-components in Table 2 and data in Table 3 were introduced 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.
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.
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.
12.3. Completeness
The electricity price data sets are complete.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
All data cells are completed.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The overall accuracy of the electricity price data can be considered very high.
13.2. Sampling error
None
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
No precision measures available.
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
The market coverage for the household sector (all units) is greater than 90%.
The market coverage for the final non-household sector is 100%, but customers that buy electricity from the wholesale market are excluded in this survey.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not aware of any over-coverage in the data.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
100% of the data comes from a survey.
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.
13.3.3. Non response error
Households
Semester 1 2019:10 suppliers surveyed, 5 responded representing 89% of the household market
Semester 2 2019:9 suppliers surveyed, 5 responded representing 89% of the household market
Semester 1 2020:17 suppliers surveyed, 9 responded representing 90% of the household market
Semester 2 2020:17 suppliers surveyed, 11 responded representing 96% of the household market
Semester 1 2021:14 suppliers surveyed, 11 responded representing 96% of the household market
Semester 2 2021:14 suppliers surveyed, 10 responded representing 96% of the household market
Non-households
Semester 1 2019:12 suppliers surveyed, 6 responded representing 92% of the non-household market
Semester 2 2019:11 suppliers surveyed, 6 responded representing 92% of the non-household market
Semester 1 2020:18 suppliers surveyed, 10 responded representing 93% of the non-household market
Semester 2 2020:18 suppliers surveyed, 9 responded representing 93% of the non-household market
Semester 1 2021:15 suppliers surveyed, 7 responded representing 89% of the non-household market
Semester 2 2021:15 suppliers surveyed, 9 responded representing 92% of the non-household market
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Households
Semester 1 2019:10 suppliers surveyed, 5 responded representing 89% of the household market
Semester 2 2019:9 suppliers surveyed, 5 responded representing 89% of the household market
Semester 1 2020:17 suppliers surveyed, 9 responded representing 90% of the household market
Semester 2 2020:17 suppliers surveyed, 11 responded representing 96% of the household market
Semester 1 2021:14 suppliers surveyed, 11 responded representing 96% of the household market
Semester 2 2021:14 suppliers surveyed, 10 responded representing 96% of the household market
Non-households
Semester 1 2019:12 suppliers surveyed, 6 responded representing 92% of the non-household market
Semester 2 2019:11 suppliers surveyed, 6 responded representing 92% of the non-household market
Semester 1 2020:18 suppliers surveyed, 10 responded representing 93% of the non-household market
Semester 2 2020:18 suppliers surveyed, 9 responded representing 93% of the non-household market
Semester 1 2021:15 suppliers surveyed, 7 responded representing 89% of the non-household market
Semester 2 2021:15 suppliers surveyed, 9 responded representing 92% of the non-household market
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
0%
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.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not Applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Electricity providers that participate in the national data collection are requested to provide the electricity 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.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 92 days after the reference period.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2019 was sent 91 days after the reference period.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2020 was sent 92 days after the reference period.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2020 was sent 89 days after the reference period.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2021 was sent 90 days after the reference period.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2021 was sent 90 days after the reference period.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 92 days after the reference period.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2019 was sent 91 days after the reference period.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2020 was sent 104 days after the reference period.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2020 was sent 89 days after the reference period.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2021 was sent 89 days after the reference period.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2021 was sent 90 days after the reference period.
[Number of days should be entered and comments provided if questionnaire was never sent]
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Version 2 of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2021 was sent 100 days after the reference period, 11 days after the first version and 8 day(s) after the mandatory deadline.
The first version of the questionnaire had been uploaded to eDamis with incorrect codes.
Version 2 of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2021 was sent 91 days after the reference period, 1 days after the first version and 1 day(s) after the mandatory deadline.
Data was revised for Table 2 after discussions with Eurostat
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 an electricity 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.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Supplier survey responses may be late due to the following reasons:
Changes in staff with no proper handover
Lack of resources
Delays in the IT department to provide the necessary data
A new supplier reporting who has not yet put the required processes in place
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Data is comparable between regions.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable
15.2. Comparability - over time
Electricity prices can be directly compared over time.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Data is comparable from 2007.
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.
The response burden is significant for electricity providers, in particular the more 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.
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.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Provisional data might be sent to Eurostat in case not all electricity suppliers have sent their micro data. Final data is submitted to Eurostat as soon as the dataset is complete.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Version 2 of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 275 days after the reference period.
Version 2 of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 299 days after the reference period.
These questionnaires were revised after errors were found in the data and suppliers were asked to resubmit.
Electricity price data for household and final non–household consumers are collected from electricity 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.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Electricity prices for household and final non-household consumers are collected from electricity suppliers every 6 months.
18.3. Data collection
The electricity price data is reported by the electricity suppliers from Ireland by using excel based, dedicated questionnaires. Returns are made by email. Please see sample questionnaire in the annexes.
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).
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 electricity supplier in each consumption band.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
0%
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Seasonable adjustments are not carried out.
European statistics on electricity prices for household and final non-household customers.
7 June 2022
The prices are reported in national currencies per kWh and according to different bands of consumption.
For the household sector, these bands are:
DA: customers consuming less than 1000 kWh.
DB: customers consuming 1000 kWh or more but less than 2500 kWh.
DC: customers consuming 2500 kWh or more but less than 5000 kWh.
DD: customers consuming 5000 kWh or more but less than 15000 kWh.
DE: customers consuming 15000 kWh or more.
For the final non-household sector, the bands are:
IA: customers consuming less than 20 MWh.
IB: customers consuming 20 MWh or more but less than 500 MWh.
IC: customers consuming 500 MWh or more but less than 2000 MWh.
ID: customers consuming 2000 MWh or more but less than 20000 MWh.
IE: customers consuming 20000 MWh or more but less than 70000 MWh.
IF: customers consuming 70000 MWh or more but less than 150000 MWh.
IG: customers consuming 150000 MWh 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: generation, aggregation, balancing energy, supplied energy costs, customer services, after-sales management and other supply costs.
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 capacity payments, energy security and generation adequacy; taxes on coal industry restructuring; taxes on electricity 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.
Nuclear taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the nuclear sector, including nuclear decommissioning, inspections and fees for nuclear installations.
All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous five 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 electricity 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:
Band
Name of the tax
component in which it is reported
Recoverable portion of the component
IA-IF
Value added taxes (VAT)
Value added taxes (VAT)
100%
In the table below are the taxes reported in "All other taxes"
Band
Name of the tax
DA-DE
Market Operator Charges (charged on a per MWh basis, on energy bought in the Single Electricity Market). The SEMO imposes a Market Operator charge to recover the costs of administering the SEM to all electricity users on a cent per kilowatt hour (c/kWh) basis. Better Energy Charges Fuel Poverty
IA-IF
Market Operator Charges (charged on a per MWh basis, on energy bought in the Single Electricity Market). The SEMO imposes a Market Operator charge to recover the costs of administering the SEM to all electricity users on a cent per kilowatt hour (c/kWh) basis. Better Energy Charges Fuel Poverty
Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands.
Household customers: Data coming from 11 suppliers out of 13 and representing 98% of the household customers.
Final non-household customers: Data coming from 12 suppliers out of 13 and representing 96% of the final non-household customers.
The Irish 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 electricity price data can be considered very high.
Prices are reported in national currency per kWh. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes the prices in EURO and PPS (purchasing power parity). Relative shares of sub-component of the network component and consumption volumes are reported in percentages.
For household and non-household consumers, the calculation of the national average prices is weighted by using the individual consumption figures for each electricity supplier in each consumption band.
Electricity price data for household and final non–household consumers are collected from electricity 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.
Electricity prices in Ireland are published on a semestrial basis on Eurostat's website.
Electricity providers that participate in the national data collection are requested to provide the electricity 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.
Data is comparable between regions.
Electricity prices can be directly compared over time.
