You must report annual values for energy use (energy consumption), broken down by energy type, for every year from the start of your energy efficiency baseline period to date. The CO2 emissions arising from this consumption is calculated automatically by the system.
This page describes methodology relating to energy consumption and CO2 emissions. For help on the data input screen used for reporting energy consumption, see energy use.
Consumption must be reported for all energy and fuel types. This includes fossil fuels, renewable energy, blended mixtures of fossil and renewable fuels, and electricity from all sources. It includes solids, liquids and gases. It includes energy used for heating, transport, all electrical applications and plant and machinery. Most organisations only use between two and four different energy types. Some organisations only use electricity.
You can select the energy types that your organisation uses on the choose energy types screen.
If your organisation has stopped consuming an energy type, it is important that the legacy energy type remains selected via the choose energy types data input screen. You should report zero consumption for the energy type for relevant years via the energy use data input screen. This enables the system to track your organisation's progress over time towards the 2030 energy efficiency and greenhouse gas targets, all of which are tracked with respect to historical baseline periods during which your organisation may have used the legacy energy type.
The system undertakes a series of calculations on the energy data reported, which are used for different aspects of the methodology. The key calculations are described below.
A blended energy type is a mixture of more than one fuel. Several of the energy types reportable via M&R are blends of a fossil fuel and a specific percentage of sustainable biofuel or bioliquid. Any consumption reported for blended energy types is split into consumption of the constituent energy types. For example, if you report 10,000 thousand litres of ‘road diesel (standard spec)’, the system calculates the split between the number of litres of diesel (fossil) and the number of litres of biodiesel.
For road diesel (standard spec) and petrol, the system uses biofuel blend rates calculated for each year from statistical data available from the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation. For other blended energy types, the system calculates the split using the blend rate reported by you for the relevant year.
The energy use that you report in fuel-specific units (e.g. kilowatt-hours of electricity, kilowatt-hours of gas, litres of oil, tonnes of wood chips, etc.) is converted to kilowatt-hours (kWh) of final energy consumption using SEAI conversion factors. This conversion is on a net calorific value basis.
The final energy consumption by energy type can be aggregated into subtotals for different categories of energy consumption, and by mode (thermal, transport and electricity). It can also be added together to calculate your organisation's total final energy consumption for a year.
Note on natural gas: natural gas is billed to customers in kilowatt-hours (kWh) on a gross calorific value basis. This is different from the unit used to display natural gas consumption in all other reports in the system. In the same way that the system converts all other energy consumption reported (e.g. in litres, tonnes, etc.) to kWh of final energy consumption on a net calorific value basis using SEAI conversion factors, the system converts kWh (gross) of natural gas consumption to kWh (net).
The final energy consumption used for heating in a year is calculated as the subtotal of your final energy consumption of thermal energy types plus the electricity consumption used for space heating. The electricity consumption used for space heating is calculated by multiplying your organisation's electricity consumption by the percentage reported by you for proportion of electricity used for space heating.
See also ‘electricity used for space heating’ in electricity consumption.
The final energy consumption used for heating is adjusted to account for degree-day variations from a 25-year average. Degree days give a measure of the effect of each year's temperature on energy requirements. For each day that the average temperature, as recorded at eight different Met Éireann weather stations, is one degree below the designated base temperature (15.5°C), one heating degree day is accumulated.
The impact of this calculation is to adjust downward your consumption (used for heating) for years that were colder than the 25-year average and adjust upward your consumption (used for heating) for years that were warmer than the 25-year average. Adjustment factors are calculated for each year based on Met Éireann weather data. Your organisation's final energy consumption is adjusted as follows:
The adjustment calculation has no impact on final energy consumption not used for heating, i.e. the adjusted values for transport and non-heating electricity are the same as the non-adjusted values. The adjusted values are referred to as weather-adjusted final energy consumption.
The weather-adjusted final energy consumption by energy type can be aggregated into subtotals for different categories of energy consumption, and by mode (thermal, transport and electricity). It can also be added together to calculate your organisation's total weather-adjusted final energy consumption for a year.
Weather-adjustment is undertaken as part of the methodology for tracking your organisation's progress towards the 2030 energy efficiency target. However, it is not used in the calculations to track your progress towards the 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets.
The weather-adjustment factors calculated for your organisation are displayed in the ‘other data’ tab in the detailed data - energy targets data report.
The weather-adjusted final energy consumption is converted to primary energy using fuel-specific conversion factors. Primary energy accounts for energy that is consumed and/or lost in transformation, transmission and distribution processes.
For most energy types, the primary energy conversion factors do not change from year to year. However, the primary energy factor for electricity can change significantly from year to year.
Primary energy by energy type can be aggregated into subtotals for different categories of energy consumption, and by mode (thermal, transport and electricity). It can also be added together to calculate your organisation's total primary energy requirement for a year.
Primary energy is a key input for the indicator used to track your organisation's progress towards the 2030 energy efficiency target. However, it is not used to track your progress towards the 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets.
The annual value for the primary energy factor for electricity is shown in the ‘other data’ tab in the detailed data - energy targets data report.
You report energy use in the units in which the energy type is purchased, e.g. kilowatt-hours of electricity, litres of oil, tonnes of wood chips, etc.
All calculated values for final energy consumption, weather-adjusted final energy consumption and primary energy requirement are expressed in kilowatt-hours (kWh). For larger energy users, energy can also be displayed in data reports in megawatt-hours (MWh) or gigawatt-hours (GWh). 1 GWh = 1,000 MWh = 1,000,000 kWh.
Final energy consumption is converted to CO2 emissions using fuel-specific emission factors. For most energy types, the emission factors only change slightly from year to year (if at all). However, the emission factor for electricity can change significantly from year to year. Note that it is the non-weather-adjusted final energy consumption that is used to calculate CO2 emissions.
CO2 emissions can be aggregated into subtotals for different categories of energy consumption, by mode (thermal, transport and electricity) and into fossil CO2 and total CO2.
All calculated values for CO2 emissions are expressed in kilgorammes of CO2 (kgCO2). For larger energy users, CO2 can also be displayed in data reports in tonnes of CO2 (tCO2) or kilotonnes of CO2 (ktCO2). 1 ktCO2 = 1,000 tCO2 = 1,000,000 kgCO2.