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.
Physical energy flow accounts (PEFA) is one module of the European environmental-economic accounts - Regulation (EU) 691/2011 Annex VI. PEFA record the flows of energy (in terajoules) from the environment to the economy (natural inputs), within the economy (products), and from the economy back to the environment (residuals), using the accounting framework of physical supply and use tables.
PEFA provide information on energy flows arranged in a way fully compatible with concepts, principles, and classifications of national accounts – thus enabling integrated analyses of environmental, energy and economic issues e.g. through environmental-economic modelling. PEFA complement the traditional energy statistics, balances and derived indicators which are the main reference data source for EU energy policies.
This national metadata refers to the PEFA questionnaire delivered to Eurostat: data on supply (table A), use (table B), transformation use (table B1), end use (table B2) and emission-relevant use (table C), key indicators of physical energy flow accounts by NACE Rev. 2 activity (table D), and physical energy flow accounts totals bridging to energy balances totals (table E).
Physical energy flow accounts (PEFA) datasets have the following dimensions:
Supply and use tables (STK_FLOW): the elements of this dimension are the five tables detailing energy supply (questionnaire table A) and use; the total energy use (table B) is the sum of transformation use (table B1) and end use (table B2), and a certain part of it is emission relevant (table C).
Energy product (PROD_NRG): (not relevant for questionnaire table D and E) The flows of energy recorded in PEFA are broadly grouped into natural energy inputs (flows from environment to economy), energy products (flows within economy), and energy residuals (flows from economy to environment mainly). Each of these generic groups is further broken down. In total this dimension distinguishes 31 items which are regulated in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/172.
Classification of economic activities - NACE Rev.2 (NACE_R2): (not relevant for questionnaire table E) The supply and use of energy flows is broken down by NACE classification of economic activities. The aggregation level used is A*64 (i.e. 64 branches), fully compatible with ESA supply and use tables. Furthermore, this dimension includes private households, accumulation (e.g. product inventories), the rest of the world economy for imports and exports, and the environment.
Indicators (INDIC_PEFA): (only relevant for questionnaire tables D and E): Various key indicators that can be derived from the physical supply and use tables and so-called 'bridging-items' which present the various elements explaining the differences between the national totals as reported by PEFA vis-a-vis the national totals as reported by Eurostat's energy balances.
Geopolitical entity (GEO): EU Member States, EFTA countries, candidate countries, and potential candidates.
Period of time (TIME): Energy flow data are annual.
Unit (UNIT): Energy flows are reported in Terajoules.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The data set covers the entire national economy as defined in national accounts (ESA 2010, paragraph 2.04), as well as its physical relation to economies in the rest of the world and the environment.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Physical energy flow accounts (PEFA) are conceptually rooted in the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) which is an international statistical standard. The SEEA central framework provides standard concepts, definitions, classifications, accounting rules and tables for the provision of statistics on the environment and its relationship with the economy. PEFA constitute satellite accounts to the National Accounts (NA). Hence, the statistical concepts and definitions of PEFA are derived from those of NA. As far as applicable PEFA is also compliant with the statistical concepts and definitions internationally established for energy statistics: the International Recommendations for Energy Statistics (IRES). Three concepts are essential to PEFA: 1) The concept of three generic types of energy flows as established in SEEA, namely: a) natural energy inputs: flows from the natural environment into the economy such as fossil energy carriers in solid, liquid and gaseous form, biomass, solar radiation, kinetic energy in form of hydro and wind, geothermal heat etc.; b) energy products: output flows from production processes as defined in national accounts (ESA); typically products produced by extractive industries, refineries, power plants etc.; c) energy residuals: mainly energy in form of dissipative heat arising from the end use of energy products, flowing from the economy into the natural environment. 2) The accounting framework of (physical) supply and use tables as established in NA and SEEA; 3) The residence principle as established in NA and SEEA, i.e. PEFA records energy flows related to resident unit's activities, regardless where those occur geographically.
3.5. Statistical unit
Data refer to activities of resident economic units in the sense of SEEA CF 2012 and national accounts (ESA), including households.
3.6. Statistical population
The national economy is as defined in SEEA CF 2012 and national accounts (ESA); i.e. all economic activities undertaken by resident units (see ESA 2010, paragraph 2.04). A unit is said to be a resident unit of a country when it has a centre of economic interest in the economic territory of that country, that is, when it engages for an extended period (1 year or more) in economic activities in that territory.
3.7. Reference area
Environmental Accounts cover the entire national territory.
The Physical Energfy Flows Account must be consistent with the Spanish National Accounts. Spanish National Accounts define the national economy as the set of activities and transactions of the resident economic agents that focus on the economic national territory. Some transactions of these units are carried out outside of the national economic territory and other transactions within this territory are carried out by non-resident units. Therefore, in Physical Energy Flows Account as well as Spanish National Accounts, it is necessary to apply the residence principle. In agreement with this principle, theenergy used by the units residing outside of the national territory shall be considered inputs of the national economy and the emissions generated by units not residing in the national economic territory shall be excluded from the accounting framework.
3.8. Coverage - Time
There is information for the 2014-2021 period.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
The unit of measure is terajoule (TJ).
The data refer to the calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
PEFA are legally covered by Regulation (EC) No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts as amended by Regulation (EU) No. 538/2014. EEEA currently include six modules (air emissions accounts, environmentally related taxes by economic activity, economy-wide material flow accounts, environmental protection expenditure accounts, environmental goods and services sector accounts, and physical energy flow accounts).
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
The Statistical Law 12/1989 specifies that the National Statistics Institute of Spain (INE) cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
National Statistics Institute of Spain (INE) provides information on the protection of confidentiality at all stages of the statistical process: INE questionnaires for the operations in the national statistical plan include a legal clause protecting data under statistical confidentiality. Notices prior to data collection announcing a statistical operation notify respondents that data are subject to statistical confidentiality at all stages. For data processing, INE employees have available the INE data protection handbook, which specifies the steps that should be taken at each stage of processing to ensure reporting units' individual data are protected. The microdata files provided to users are anonymised.
Environmental Accounts is a statistical operation included in the National Statistics Plan, therefore subject to the Law on the Public Statistical Function of 9 May 1989, hence its data is protected by Statistical Secrecy in all stages of its compilation
The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice
The data are disseminated annually.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Environmental Accounts users may access the data regarding Physical Energy Flows Accounts via the INE website
INEbase is the system the National Statistics Institute of Spain (INE) uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.
Access to tables and results in INEBASE (www.ine.es) / Physical variables and environment / Environmental accounts
The policy of the customised request service is to analyse if the statistical secrecy and significance conditions are met. After this analysis, a viability report is compiled and sent to the petitioner.
The requests will be carried out via the User information area:
Fields 11 to 19 of this document are the quality report oriented to the user of this operation.
11.1. Quality assurance
Quality assurance framework for the National Statistics Institute of Spain (INE) statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.
The quality of synthesis statistics such as Environmental Accounts, is firstly derived from the multiple sources they use. In all of them it has been intended to obtain information that is as accurate as possible, minimising the different types of errors they may be affected by. Moreover, the decisions of the corresponding regulations are followed when compiling this data. See point 18.5.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
The Commission (Eurostat) will assess the quality of the transmitted data and within a month after it is received may request additional information from the Member State regarding the data revised, as appropriate (Article 7.4 of European Regulation No. 691/2011) .
In the case of The Physical Energy Flow Account ( PEFA), the quality of its estimates depends mainly on the primary data that make up the Energy Statistics. The estimates of PEFA are based on the methodology designed by Eurostat, using the principles, rules and classifications of national accounts, which ensures their internal consistency and with other modules of the environmental accounts (ej: Air Emissions Accounts), as well as comparability with aggregates of national accounts.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Environmental Accounts allow observing the pressure the economy puts on the environment and studies how to reduce it. They show interactions among the economy, households and environmental factors, and therefore offer more information than the Spanish National Accounts in this field.
As an essential source of environmental data, they are basic for environmental politics decision-making and the development of impact assessment at a national and international level. According to the Sustainable Development principles included in the the European Green Deal and other initiatives, as well as the advance towards a low-emissions economy that is efficient in the use of resources, it is becoming more and more necessary to develop and implement a data framework structure that systematically includes the environmental and economic data. Moreover, since they constitute a synthesis statistical operation in the environmental field, they allow identifying gaps and improvements in the Spanish statistical system.
Among the Environmental Accounts users are the following: • Ministries and other public institutions (observatories, etc.) • Territorial Administrations (Autonomous Communities) • Researchers and Academic institutions • Non-profit companies and institutions (Company research services, foundations, associations, etc.), trade unions and employers' organisations. • Press and specialised media
Similarly, there are foreign institutional users (Eurostat, OECD, United Nations, etc.)
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...
On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click next link)
12.3. Completeness
Physical Energy Flows Accounts meet the information requirements demanded by the European Parliament and Council Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011, of 6 July 2011, regarding European Environmental Economic Accounts, therefore they are exhaustive.
The rate of compulsory statistical results that are available is of 100% (R1 = 100%)
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Environmental Accounts are synthesis statistics, therefore they are affected by sampling errors coming from sources from which information is collected, which are analysed in order to see if they remain within reasonable limits. Non-sampling errors may come from the sources or from the information treatment of this operation (lack of coverage, measurement errors). In summary, direct measurement of accuracy in this case is not applicable.
The main instrument to analyze the acuracity is the analysis of the reviews. The reviews show the degree of proximity between successive estimators of the same value, and it is reasonable to assume that the estimators converge to the true value when based on better and more reliable data.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.4. Processing error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable to statistical accounts.
Physical Energy Flows Account estimates are sent to EUROSTAT within 21 months after the reference year finishes, in compliance with the European Regulation 691/2011 regarding European Environmental Economic Accounts, in which data transmission periods are regulated.
The indicator of the time elapsed between the end of the reference period and dissemination in INEBase is TP1 = 23 months.
14.1. Timeliness
Physical Energy Flows Account estimates are sent to EUROSTAT within 21 months after the reference year finishes, in compliance with the European Regulation 691/2011 regarding European Environmental Economic Accounts, in which data transmission periods are regulated.
The indicator of the time elapsed between the end of the reference period and dissemination in INEBase is TP1 = 23 months.
Data on PEFA are compiled according to international guidelines and insofar comparable. Application of the PEFA Builder tool ensures comparability to a certain extent.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Please see the table in 15.2.1.1.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.
15.2.1.1. Comparability - over time detailed
Please use below table for explaining b)-flags (breaks in time series):
Year (of the break in series)
Questionnaire table(s)
Columns (NACE Rev. 2 activity, households etc.)
Rows (natural energy inputs, energy products, energy residuals)
Reason for' break in time series'
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Physical Energy Flow Accounts are coherent with Spanish National Accounts and Environmental Accounts
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable; reported PEFA data are only annual.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Physical Energy Flow Accounts are coherent with Spanish National Accounts
15.3.3. Do you cooperate with national colleagues compiling AEA?
Physical Energy Flow Accounts are coherent with Air Emissions Accounts (AEA)
15.3.4. Are there compilation elements that PEFA compilers jointly undertake with AEA compilers (e.g. distribution of road transport fuel use and emissions by NACE)?
Physical Energy Flow Accounts are coherent with Air Emissions Accounts (AEA)
15.3.5. Do you report in PEFA imports and exports according to the SEEA-CF concepts for trade in goods (see SEEA-CF section 3.3.3, paras. 3.121 ff., and para. 1.46)?
The import and export data used in PEFA are derived from energy statistics compiled by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and are subject to the same residence adjustment procedures as the rest of the Energy Account.
15.3.6. Do you perform cross-domain plausibility checks between your PEFA data on air transport versus OECD's data on CO2-emissions of air transport?
In both environmental accounts, "OECD data on CO2 emissions from air transport" are used for the estimates.
15.3.7. Do you perform cross-domain plausibility checks between PEFA data points and corresponding data points in energy statistics (see PEFA validation rules)?
The PEFA Builder tool is used to compile the physical energy flow account, with energy statistics being the main source of information.
15.3.8. Do you perform cross-domain plausibility checks between PEFA data points and the corresponding data points in economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) (see PEFA validation rules)?
Yes, the checks specified in the PEFA validation standards are being carried out between PEFA and EW-MFA.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Eurostat's validation procedures should ensure full internal consistency, at least for the mandatory data points.
In the 2023 Annual Statistical Program, the estimate of the necessary budget appropriation to finance this Environmental Accounts/ Physical Eneergy Flows Accounts operation is 31,37 thousand euros.
There is no burden on respondents, since the information provided by other statistics is used.
17.1. Data revision - policy
The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).
This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow: routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.
Environmental Accounts data is revised coherently with the data revision scheme of the Annual Spanish National Accounts.
Regulation (EU) 691/2011 establishes that in each annual data transmission, the data for years n-2, n-1 and n is provided, "n" being the reference year.
17.2. Data revision - practice
The factors that determine revisions in Physical Energy Flow Accounts estimates are basically the changes in the data of the Annual Spanish National Accounts, the Energy Statistics updates and the changes made for the improvement of estimation procedures.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.
18.1. Source data
Data sources used to produce physical energy flow accounts are described in the following sub-concepts.
18.1.1. Which are the main data sources you employ for the use of natural energy inputs (i.e. who is extracting)?
Energy statistics are the main source of information
18.1.2. Which are the main data sources you employ for supply of energy products (e.g. electricity, refinery products etc.)?
Energy statistics are the main source of information
18.1.3. Which are the main data sources you employ for the transformation use by energy transforming entities (NACE 2-digit divisions)?
Energy statistics are the main source of information
18.1.4. Which are the main data sources you employ for the end use by end user entities (including non-energy use)?
Energy statistics are the main source of information
18.1.5. Which auxiliary data do you use to develop 'distribution keys' to assign energy use to the detailed breakdown of production activities (NACE 2-digit divisions) and categories of household consumption?
Energy statistics are the main sources of information.
Consumption energy modules embedded in the Surveys of Structural Industry and Services, Spanish National Accounts (Use Tables), Records Stock of Vehicles of the Spanish Traffic Authority and default allocation of PEFA_NaceBreakdown (Eurostat).
18.1.6. Do you use the PEFA builder? If yes: for populating the PEFA Tables, or for control only?
Yes, for populating the PEFA Tables
18.1.7. Which data sources do you use to make adjustments for the residence principle?
The main sources use to make adjustments for the residence principle are:
Fishing fleet Statistics (Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food) Traffic Maps of the Directorate General of Roads (Ministry of Public Works Statistics) Road Freight Transport Survey (Ministry of Public Works Statistics) Records Stock of Vehicles of the Spanish Traffic Authority (Ministry for home affairs) OECD's data on CO2-emissions of air transport (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)
18.2. Frequency of data collection
The data is collected annually.
18.3. Data collection
Data collection techniques may vary depending on the type of source, the date in which the data is available, etc.
Generally, the data is sent to the Environmental Accounts Unit by the different units that compile it. However the information can sometimes be obtained directly via the corresponding database.
18.4. Data validation
The base information coming from different statistics undergoes a set of treatments: Outlier identification, error filtering, adjustment to Environmental Accounts stipulations.
18.5. Data compilation
The compilation process may be structured in several stages:
1. Updating of base information: Collection of available data
2. Treatment of base information: It undergoes a series of treatments, consisting of outlier identification, error filtering and adjustment to Environmental Accounts stipulations.
3. Breakdown of the data by industry and household sector as final consumers: In order to achieve a more accurate estimate, auxiliary files are used so as to achieve the highest possible breakdown level of the different identifiable components
4. Estimate analysis and revision: The result time series are analysed in order to detect possible errors.
5. Preparation of the final result files with the different required formats: sending format to EUROSTAT, and files for dissemination in INEBase (Results, Methodology, Press release)
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not applicable.
18.5.2. Do you assign all supply of electricity and heat to NACE D35, or do you assign some to other NACE divisions than D35? Is the assignment you did fully aligned to the ESA monetary supply table submitted by your country?
All supply of electricity is assigned to NACE D35.
18.5.3. Which method do you use for the allocation of road transport energy use to NACE industries and households?
The recommendations of the PEFA Manual have been take into account to assign energy use to NACE ( industries and households). To do this, data fron Energy Consumption Survey (Industries and Services) , Vehicle Administrative Registers and Maps of Road Transport and data from Spanish SUT have been used.
18.5.4. Which method do you use for the allocation of energy use to detailed service industries (i.e. NACE 2-digit divisions 55-98)?
Consumption energy modules embedded in the Surveys of Structural Industry and Services, Spanish National Accounts (Use Tables), Records Stock of Vehicles of the Spanish Traffic Authority and default allocation of PEFA_NaceBreakdown (Eurostat).
18.5.5. How do you ensure a coherent assignment of energy use to economic activities (i.e. the use of energy products by a given production activity (NACE A*64 division) reported in PEFA must be coherent with the emissions reported in AEA)?
The PEFA data are aligned with the energy statistics used for the development of the AEA. (e.g. PEFA Table C is used in the allocation - NACE*64 division - of boiler combustion data in the AEA and the allocation of road transport data uses the same information sources).
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
Physical energy flow accounts (PEFA) is one module of the European environmental-economic accounts - Regulation (EU) 691/2011 Annex VI. PEFA record the flows of energy (in terajoules) from the environment to the economy (natural inputs), within the economy (products), and from the economy back to the environment (residuals), using the accounting framework of physical supply and use tables.
PEFA provide information on energy flows arranged in a way fully compatible with concepts, principles, and classifications of national accounts – thus enabling integrated analyses of environmental, energy and economic issues e.g. through environmental-economic modelling. PEFA complement the traditional energy statistics, balances and derived indicators which are the main reference data source for EU energy policies.
This national metadata refers to the PEFA questionnaire delivered to Eurostat: data on supply (table A), use (table B), transformation use (table B1), end use (table B2) and emission-relevant use (table C), key indicators of physical energy flow accounts by NACE Rev. 2 activity (table D), and physical energy flow accounts totals bridging to energy balances totals (table E).
Physical energy flow accounts (PEFA) are conceptually rooted in the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) which is an international statistical standard. The SEEA central framework provides standard concepts, definitions, classifications, accounting rules and tables for the provision of statistics on the environment and its relationship with the economy. PEFA constitute satellite accounts to the National Accounts (NA). Hence, the statistical concepts and definitions of PEFA are derived from those of NA. As far as applicable PEFA is also compliant with the statistical concepts and definitions internationally established for energy statistics: the International Recommendations for Energy Statistics (IRES). Three concepts are essential to PEFA: 1) The concept of three generic types of energy flows as established in SEEA, namely: a) natural energy inputs: flows from the natural environment into the economy such as fossil energy carriers in solid, liquid and gaseous form, biomass, solar radiation, kinetic energy in form of hydro and wind, geothermal heat etc.; b) energy products: output flows from production processes as defined in national accounts (ESA); typically products produced by extractive industries, refineries, power plants etc.; c) energy residuals: mainly energy in form of dissipative heat arising from the end use of energy products, flowing from the economy into the natural environment. 2) The accounting framework of (physical) supply and use tables as established in NA and SEEA; 3) The residence principle as established in NA and SEEA, i.e. PEFA records energy flows related to resident unit's activities, regardless where those occur geographically.
Data refer to activities of resident economic units in the sense of SEEA CF 2012 and national accounts (ESA), including households.
The national economy is as defined in SEEA CF 2012 and national accounts (ESA); i.e. all economic activities undertaken by resident units (see ESA 2010, paragraph 2.04). A unit is said to be a resident unit of a country when it has a centre of economic interest in the economic territory of that country, that is, when it engages for an extended period (1 year or more) in economic activities in that territory.
Environmental Accounts cover the entire national territory.
The Physical Energfy Flows Account must be consistent with the Spanish National Accounts. Spanish National Accounts define the national economy as the set of activities and transactions of the resident economic agents that focus on the economic national territory. Some transactions of these units are carried out outside of the national economic territory and other transactions within this territory are carried out by non-resident units. Therefore, in Physical Energy Flows Account as well as Spanish National Accounts, it is necessary to apply the residence principle. In agreement with this principle, theenergy used by the units residing outside of the national territory shall be considered inputs of the national economy and the emissions generated by units not residing in the national economic territory shall be excluded from the accounting framework.
The data refer to the calendar year.
Environmental Accounts are synthesis statistics, therefore they are affected by sampling errors coming from sources from which information is collected, which are analysed in order to see if they remain within reasonable limits. Non-sampling errors may come from the sources or from the information treatment of this operation (lack of coverage, measurement errors). In summary, direct measurement of accuracy in this case is not applicable.
The main instrument to analyze the acuracity is the analysis of the reviews. The reviews show the degree of proximity between successive estimators of the same value, and it is reasonable to assume that the estimators converge to the true value when based on better and more reliable data.
The unit of measure is terajoule (TJ).
The compilation process may be structured in several stages:
1. Updating of base information: Collection of available data
2. Treatment of base information: It undergoes a series of treatments, consisting of outlier identification, error filtering and adjustment to Environmental Accounts stipulations.
3. Breakdown of the data by industry and household sector as final consumers: In order to achieve a more accurate estimate, auxiliary files are used so as to achieve the highest possible breakdown level of the different identifiable components
4. Estimate analysis and revision: The result time series are analysed in order to detect possible errors.
5. Preparation of the final result files with the different required formats: sending format to EUROSTAT, and files for dissemination in INEBase (Results, Methodology, Press release)
Data sources used to produce physical energy flow accounts are described in the following sub-concepts.
The data are disseminated annually.
Physical Energy Flows Account estimates are sent to EUROSTAT within 21 months after the reference year finishes, in compliance with the European Regulation 691/2011 regarding European Environmental Economic Accounts, in which data transmission periods are regulated.
The indicator of the time elapsed between the end of the reference period and dissemination in INEBase is TP1 = 23 months.
Data on PEFA are compiled according to international guidelines and insofar comparable. Application of the PEFA Builder tool ensures comparability to a certain extent.
