Difference between revisions of "Regional reports on energy data management"

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[[File:Figura13.jpg|center|frame|Availability of data for public lighting]]
 
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== Conclusions ==
 
We can see from responses that the situation regarding data about public lighting is on high level. In all questions, more that ¾ of respondents reported the availability of data, which is a lot better, compared to other sectors. Most of the cadastres contain all of the important data about the lighting, however we must point out, that sometimes the data is out of date, because of retrofits being made on single lamps. There is also a problem regarding traceability of changes made in the past, because the areas that need public lighting are constantly expanding and, thus the data is not updated.   
 
We can see from responses that the situation regarding data about public lighting is on high level. In all questions, more that ¾ of respondents reported the availability of data, which is a lot better, compared to other sectors. Most of the cadastres contain all of the important data about the lighting, however we must point out, that sometimes the data is out of date, because of retrofits being made on single lamps. There is also a problem regarding traceability of changes made in the past, because the areas that need public lighting are constantly expanding and, thus the data is not updated.   
 
One should also take into account that public lighting represents a relatively small proportion of the overall energy consumption in countries. For example in Slovenia, according to Prelovsek [3], public lighting amounts to around 0.7 %. On the other hand, public lighting is often the biggest public energy consumer in a municipality, so the effort in reducing the consumption offers significant impact. Furthermore, investment in public lighting tends to have a quick payback time especially when the lighting equipment is rather obsolete.
 
One should also take into account that public lighting represents a relatively small proportion of the overall energy consumption in countries. For example in Slovenia, according to Prelovsek [3], public lighting amounts to around 0.7 %. On the other hand, public lighting is often the biggest public energy consumer in a municipality, so the effort in reducing the consumption offers significant impact. Furthermore, investment in public lighting tends to have a quick payback time especially when the lighting equipment is rather obsolete.

Revision as of 11:26, 25 March 2019

Introduction

The Toolkit of CitiEnGov project has a major focus on energy data. In the context of CitiEnGov, energy data is being used to, either define different kind of action plans, such as SEAP or SECAP, or to monitor them. This energy data refers to buildings, transport and public lighting and includes data about: 1. energy production and distribution, 2. real energy consumption, 3. estimated energy needs and energy performance.

CitiEnGov project partners reported the information about the availability of energy data in their regions in the frame of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was not limited to project partners, but also addressed to other local stakeholders, such as public authorities, business support organisations, consultants, advisors and researchers. In this way, we were able to get a more comprehensive and balanced overview about the availability of energy data, which is not subject to single opinions or knowledge.

The following sub-sections provide results from the questionnaire and they are presented in diagrams and text. Questions and desired inputs have been organized in the following sections about energy data:

  1. energy sources, production and distribution
  2. energy consumption and energy performance for municipal buildings
  3. energy consumption and energy performance for other buildings
  4. energy consumption for transport
  5. energy consumption for public lighting
  6. CO2 emission factors

Energy sources, production and distribution

The following diagram shows different energy sources used in different regions. We can see from the diagram that biomass, district heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal and fossil fuels are well represented in all regions with hydroelectric and geothermal falling just a little behind. It has to be noted, that the data does not provide us with quantative values, but only gives an information whether the energy source is used. For example, solar thermal energy source is used in almost all areas, but represents just a fraction of total energy used from fossil fuels.

Used sources in different areas

The following diagram shows the availability of cadastres of utility networks. Cadastres are mostly presented as spatial data, but in some cases, only as a statistic data. In most areas these applications are hard to master and are quite complicated. For example, Slovenia has two systems at national level, that are not connected and that do not allow users to download data for more than one unit at the time.

Cadastre of utility network

As we can see from the diagram, in most countries there are organizations, that are responsible for gathering data about energy production from different sources. Only about 15% of respondents have reported, that there is also an organization that gathers data on regional level.

Level of organization that gathers energy production from different sources

Conclusions

The diagrams show that there are similarities in the mentioned areas, between different regions, especially when it comes to organizations responsible for data about energy production from different sources (see last diagram). Majority of countries/regions only have data available on national level. Not gathering data on regional level could be seen as a problem, as it is quite difficult to plan energy projects on local level, if there are only documents about energy data on national level (such is the case in Slovenia, where there are a lot of small municipalities and they cannot obtain any relevant local data).

Energy consumption and energy performance for municipal buildings

In most countries, the data about energy performance of municipal buildings is free of charge, however at the same time, in most cases, this data is not publicly available. A small percentage of respondents reported that there is a marginal cost for the data, and also a small percentage reported that the data is not available.

Cost for data about energy performance of buildings

The following diagram shows that almost half of the respondents reported, that there is no data about energy certificates available, about a third of them reported that there are individual records and about 15% of them reported, that the data is available but grouped by energy class.

Data about energy performance certificates

Conclusions

The first diagram shows quite satisfying responses, as most of the data is free of charge. In some cases, like partner LEAG from Slovenia reports, municipalities, who are the owners of the data, have to allow the data to be public. The second diagram gives a bit more poor view on the situation, as majority areas do not have any data about energy certficates for municipal buildings available. A situation from Slovenia also shows, that even if the data is available, it can be difficult to be of any use. The partner from Slovenia reports, that the system is designed in a way that most in most regions, the users cannot obtain a tabular format of the data but only a downloadable text (pdf form), which is not very helpful for the quantitive evaluation of energy related documents (SEAP, SECAP, etc.)

Energy consumption and energy performance for other buildings

The data about energy performance of other buildings is mostly free of charge, which is very similar to municipal buildings. Responses also show that there are some areas that have buildings that would have to be surveyed separately in order to get the data.

Cost of energy performance data for private buildings

The following diagram shows that majority of regions do not have any registers for nominal power of boilers at single building level available. A third of respondents, reported that there is a register available on regional level.

National or regional register of nominal power of boilers

Conclusions

Data about energy consumption and energy performance of private buildings is quite a big problem, because there are always issues about privacy, accuracy of the data and what kind of data to collect. The data is free of charge across most of the European Union, but the important question is what kind of data. There are big differences between different kind of energy data and they cannot be used for the same purpose. For example, the calculated energy consumption of the building (the one that can be summarized from energy performance certificates) and real energy consumption of the building are quite different, which is especially true for buildings that consume under 60 kWh/m2 of heat per year.

What is different in private buildings, and is also noted from responses, is that some areas have buildings that would have to be surveyed separately, which would of course reflect in high cost of surveying, and since the private buildings are operated in private economic sector this is unlikely to happen on its own.

The responses about registers of nominal power of boilers show a poor situation in this area, especially if we consider what boilers actually represent, when it comes to energy. Boilers are devices that produce heat for heating or preparation of hot water. In most countries of the European Union, the boilers are examined once a year by chimney companies. Electric boilers are devices that only use electricity to heat hot water. While other boilers use gas to heat the water, an electric boiler can be used in off-grid areas, or in places where gas supply is either, not wanted or not possible. According to European Environment Agency approximately ¾ of all produced electricity in European Union comes from power plants that use nuclear or fossil fuels. So, with electric boilers we use approximately 3 kWh of fossil fuels to produce 1 kWh of electricity. Using a heat pump instead helps to lower the consumption of primary energy and also the need power.

Energy consumption for transport

The diagram shows whether or not energy accounting has been introduced for transport in the areas of respondents. The results show that there is not a lot of energy accounting for transport. Energy accounting for municipal fleet has been introduced in approximately half of all respondents, while the numbers lower for public transport and are especially low in private and commercial transport.

Energy accounting for transport

The diagram shows whether or not there is data available that is related to consumption in transport. The data about fuel consumption is mostly available for municipal fleet and public transport. For private and commercial transport, the data is mostly not available.

Data about energy consumption for transport

The following diagram shows the availability of cadastres of transport networks in the areas of respondents. Cadastre of transport is available in most areas, but there is a lack of tabular data available. For this reason, it is very hard to get appropriate qualitative data for elaboration of LECs and SEAPs.

Cadastre of transport networks

Conclusions

According to European Environment Agency (EEA) final energy consumption for transport accounts for approximately one third of all energy. The annual energy consumption of transport in the EEA-33 grew by 38 % between 1990 and 2007. Road transport accounts for the largest share of energy consumption, with 74 % of the total EEA-33 demand in 2015. Despite these numbers, energy accounting and data about consumption are usually only available for municipal fleet and public transport falling a little behind. According to EEA the problem originates from the fact that share of energy usage for cars is approximately 50 % of all energy used for transport, compared to buses and trains that uses less than 10 % all energy used for transport. In order to address the challenges that transport is facing in terms of energy, private and commercial transport should be taken into account.

Energy consumption for public lighting

The diagram shows whether or not energy accounting has been introduced for municipal public lighting. As we can see, energy accounting for public lightning was introduced in most municipalities. The reason for that could be seen in the fact that data for public lighting is much more simple to capture compared to transport.

Energy accounting for public lighting

The following diagram shows the availability of cadastres of public lights in the areas of respondents. As we can see, cadastre for public lightning is implemented in approximately ¾ of all respondents’ areas. Problem that arises in some countries is the same as with all cadastres (no availability of tabular data).

Cadastre for public lighting

The diagram shows availability of different type of energy data connected to public lighting. We can see that overall, data for public lighting has a high availability.

Availability of data for public lighting

Conclusions

We can see from responses that the situation regarding data about public lighting is on high level. In all questions, more that ¾ of respondents reported the availability of data, which is a lot better, compared to other sectors. Most of the cadastres contain all of the important data about the lighting, however we must point out, that sometimes the data is out of date, because of retrofits being made on single lamps. There is also a problem regarding traceability of changes made in the past, because the areas that need public lighting are constantly expanding and, thus the data is not updated. One should also take into account that public lighting represents a relatively small proportion of the overall energy consumption in countries. For example in Slovenia, according to Prelovsek [3], public lighting amounts to around 0.7 %. On the other hand, public lighting is often the biggest public energy consumer in a municipality, so the effort in reducing the consumption offers significant impact. Furthermore, investment in public lighting tends to have a quick payback time especially when the lighting equipment is rather obsolete.

CO2 emission factors

The diagram shows the availability of data about CO2 emission, in regards to different sectors. The availability of the data is clearly higher when it comes to municipal and other public infrastructure such as transport and public lighting, while other buildings show lower availability.

Data about CO2 emissions for different sectors

The diagram shows the situation on whether or not there are CO2 factors calculated considering the specific emission factors, in regards to different sectors. The responses clearly indicate that other/private buildings have a lower amount of CO2 factors calculated and public lighting has the highest factors calculated.

Calculation of CO2 emissions

It must be pointed out that CO2 factors mostly depend on other data. Therefore the data about the factors is usually available where there is also the data about the type and amount of used energy. CO2 emission factors are mostly calculated from conversion factors, which are defined on the national level. The factors depend on the share of the final energy usage for electricity production. Thus, the more electricity that is produced from renewable energy resources, the lower the factors.