Exercise 9: Energy balance
PART 1: Understanding the energy balance
Please choose and open one of the files “2012_BAL_COUNTRY.xls”. This file is the “IEA balance builder” for
the COUNTRY of your choice.
The purpose of the IEA Balance Builder is to build a country energy balance following the IEA methodology
starting from data in physical units. In this case, the file has been prefilled for your analysis. In the sheet
“Aggregated balance”, you find a complete energy balance for the given country, for the year 2012.
The goal of this introductory exercise is to understand the main concepts behind an energy balance and to
become familiar with it. The series of questions below will guide you through an analysis of the balance.
Supply
1. Is the country an energy producer? If so, of what products?
Disaggregated balance worksheet. Look at the production (row 7) first for primary products.
Secondary energy production appears in the transformation sector. Check positive numbers which show
output.
2. What is the largest energy source in the country’s energy mix?
In “Disaggregated balance” worksheet check the Domestic supply row.
In “Aggregated balance” worksheet check the TPES row.
3. Is the country overall self-sufficient? Why?
Look in “Aggregated balance” worksheet. Calculated as production/TPES. Use the column “Total of all energy
sources” to calculate.
Less than 1 means the country is not self-sufficient and depends on imports.
4. Look for the values of TPES/population in 2000 and 2012 by selecting the country in the right menu
at: http://www.iea.org/statistics/statisticssearch/ . Has it changed?
TPES/population is a rough indicator of how much energy is consumed per person.
Transformation
5. What is the difference between a negative number and a positive number in the transformation
sector?
Negative numbers show an input to a transformation process and a positive numbers shows an
output.
6. What are the sources of electricity in the country?
Disaggregated balance worksheet. The sources of electricity will appear as a negative number under the
different fuels in the transformation sector under the main activity and autoproducer electricity and CHP plants
(row 17 to 20)
7. Focus on main activity electricity producers: how much energy is lost in the transformation process
in the overall electricity generation? What share of the total input to electricity does it represent?
Disaggregated balance worksheet. The losses appear in the column “Total” (column BP) as a negative number
in row 17.
To calculate the share you need to add all the input in the row 17 first to get the total input.
8. Bonus question: If the country has generation of electricity from coal or natural gas main activity
producers, what is the specific efficiency of generation? (Use information of electricity generation
by source at the bottom of the page; note that 1 GWh = 0.086 ktoe).
Look in “Aggregated balance” worksheet. The efficiency of the main activity producers for coal is calculated by
taking the corresponding output in GWh in row 62 multiplied by 0.086 to get ktoe and then divide by the input
reported in row 12
Final consumption
9. What is the largest final consumption sector?
Look in “Aggregated balance” worksheet. Check out the rows Industry, Transport, Other and Non-energy use
to see which sector has the biggest number in “Total” (row P)
10. What is the share of oil products in road consumption?
Look in “Aggregated balance” worksheet.
Take the amount in cell F44 (which is the amount of oil products consumed in Road) and divide by P44 (which
is the total amount consumed in Road).
PART 2: Building the energy balance
Please open the file BalanceBuilder_Statisland.xls
The purpose of the IEA Balance Builder is to build a country energy balance following the IEA methodology.
This can be done either by filling by hand the “Data in physical units” and “Conversion factors” worksheets
or by uploading data from the IEA data questionnaires. Whenever data need to be adjusted, it is good
practice to adjust the corresponding questionnaire and re-upload it.
You are presented with a partially filled balance builder, follow the instructions below to complete the data.
Note that yellow cells indicate errors (as explained in the “Main Menu” worksheet).
Before starting, open the “Data in physical units” worksheet. You will note the following issues:


there is an arithmetic error for other bituminous coal
anthracite has data on the “Data in physical units” worksheet but no data on the “Disaggregated
balance” worksheet, due to missing net calorific values in the “Conversion factors” worksheet.
Now do the following:
1. Please adjust the coal questionnaire STATISLAND_Coal.xls for 2012 according to the following:
a. Other bituminous coal: consumption in Industry Sector - Non-metallic minerals was
accidentally left out. It should be 7666 kt.
b. “Table 4”: Update the following net calorific values:
Anthracite: 28710 kJ/kg for production, 28958 kJ/kg for Imports , 28710 kJ/kg for exports,
12235 kJ/kg for Used in main activity plants, 19732 kJ/kg for Used in industry and 21472
kJ/kg for For other uses.
2. Once you are done with the above changes you can upload the coal questionnaire.
3. Check the Balance Builder to make sure that all the errors were corrected.
General balance question:
4. Look at the nuclear and hydro columns in the “Data in physical units” worksheet, numbers are
reported in electricity output not in production and transformation, why?
Looking at nuclear and hydro in the “aggregated balance” worksheet we find numbers in
production; how are they calculated? What is the implied efficiency?
In the data in physical units, nuclear and hydro have numbers only in electricity production (and
sometimes in heat for nuclear). Geothermal is different because it not only can have electricity and
heat output from the transformation sector, it can also have direct use which would appear as
production and consumption.
Physical energy content method used to calculate the primary energy equivalent, with nuclear heat
as primary energy (nuclear) and hydro ele as primary energy (hydro).
Efficiency of transformation 33% for nuclear (estimate comes for European average of losses from
nuclear heat to nuclear ele). And 100% for hydro (no transformation actually).
Bonus question:
5.
Please open the file Statisland_bonus_question.xls. This is a copy of the “aggregated balance” worksheet in
BalanceBuilder_Statisland.
Let’s assume that electricity production of Main activity producer electricity plants from Coal stopped
completely and was replaced by an equal amount of Hydro electricity generation. Note that production of coal
would decrease by the same amount that used to go as input to Main activity producer electricity plants.
Before making any change to the energy balance please calculate the percentage of renewables in both the
TPES and in total electricity output. Then, change the relevant parts of the energy balance and recalculate
calculate the new percentage of renewables in both the TPES and in total electricity output by filling the table
below.
Hint: 1 GWh=0.086 ktoe
Renewables share
in total electricity output
in TPES
Before change
After change
12.4%
49.8%
6.4%
14.4%
Changes to be made in energy balance:
For coal, Mainelec=0 and Production decreases by the amount that used to go to Mainelec. TPES is adjusted
accordingly. Coal electricity output in GWh becomes equal to zero.
For Hydro, electricity output in GWh will increase by the same amount that was previously generated from coal. The
input to Mainelec will have to be recalculated and production and TPES adjusted.
The total column also changes accordingly...
No changes made in the Electricity column