Energy Accounting

Introduction
• In the modern world energy is an essential input to every production, transport and
communication process.
• Energy accounting, or energy analysis--which is now the term preferred by users
of the technique--is a systematic way of tracing the flows of energy through an
industrial system, resulting in the apportioning of a fraction of the primary energy
inputs into the system to each of the outputs of that system.
• Energy accounting, in various forms, has received a good deal of attention in the
last year or two because it is a way of measuring the effects of different energy
policies.
• If energy resources are likely to form a growing constraint on the aspirations of
society, then energy accounting will become of increasing importance.
Aim
• To analyze particular processes in detail so as to deduce an energy efficiency and
hence make recommendations for conserving energy.
• To analyze the consumption of energy on a large scale either to forecast energy
demand or to point to policies which could reduce future demand.
• To analyze the energy consumption of basic technology such as food production
and mineral extraction in order to reveal some future consequences of
technological trends or an energy shortage.
• To construct energy costs and examine energy flows so as to understand the
thermodynamics of an industrial system. This type of long-range aim may be
coupled to projects such as 'world modelling' based on physical, rather than
monetary, flows.
Aim (cont.)
• According to Hemming, some of the aim of the energy accounting are as follow:
1. Identification of possible energy savings in the energy industries, which are
themselves amongst the largest consumers of energy.
2. Identification of feedbacks as indirect energies of material and capital inputs.
3. Determination of the more energetically favorable of two possible energy
sources (although there may be other overriding factors involved).
4. Identification of any limits or 'points of futility' where no net energy is
produced.
5. Improvement of financial forecasting in evaluating the energy component of
the fuel cost.
INPUT/OUTPUT TABLE ENERGY ANALYSIS AND ITS
APPLICATIONS (The Method of Analysis)
• First developed for economic analysis, static linear input/output analysis has been adapted to deal
with energy.
• The I/O tables are, published in money terms and so we obtain a typical energy requirement.
• Nevertheless, this can be interesting when comparing a range of commodities to see the disparity
between money costs and energy costs.
• In 1/O energy analysis, the system boundary is the nation concerned.
• Unfortunately, the data on which the 1/O tables are based is not available within nation states on
an annual basis and requires a special census.
• Thus, it can be argued against this method of energy analysis that the data is in too aggregated a
form.
• Also, since one has to convert recorded money values of commodities and energy into physical
quantities, prices of fuels and commodities have to be used.
The effect of energy costs on industrial prices

• Suppose a commodity has an energy intensiveness of 10 per cent and suppose that
the price of energy were to treble, then we would expect an increase in price for
the commodity of 20 per cent.
• This can be performed for a range of commodities and the results compared.
• This, of course, assumes that industrial prices increase by just sufficient to cover
the postulated increased cost of energy and it also implies a constancy of value-
added per unit of output; i.e. a constancy of wages, profits and taxes per unit of
output.
The energy intensity of capital goods

• One of the advantages of the I/O table method of deriving energy values has in
practice been the rapid identification of broad classes of products, notably capital
goods, which have roughly the same energy intensity.
• Although this application of I/O table data only gives a rough, rule-of-thumb
value, it does save going into the details of exactly what buildings, machinery,
transport, etc. are involved.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS (Method of analysis)

• Here, the necessary data on inputs and outputs is obtained from statistical sources
such as national Censuses of Production or individual industry sectors such as the
Iron and Steel Industry brown book.
• Again, the method is basically restricted by the statistics available and their
degree of disaggregation, as well as by the fact that the data may be somewhat out
of date.
• However, the latter restriction may not be quite as serious as it might appear at
first sight, since technology and production systems do not change all that fast.
• One could use the statistical method for a rapid determination of the energy
requirements of systems other than industrial production.
Energy consumption in the energy industries

• In carrying out an energy analysis of the fuel industries, acceptable conventions

have to be made for partitioning the total energy costs of the inputs between the
different outputs.
PROCESS ENERGY ANALYSIS (Method of analysis)

• This is almost certainly the most useful method of energy analysis available to us
at the present time.
• Process energy analysis essentially involves three basic stages:
1. Identification of the network of processes which contribute to a final product.
2. Analysis of each process within the network in order to identify the inputs, in the
form of equipment, materials and fuels.
3. Assignation of an energy value to each input.
Drawbacks
• There are problems associated with operating this method of energy analysis,
especially in:
1. Defining an appropriate sub-system,
2. Attaching energy values to particular inputs and
3. Incorporating all the significant inputs, which are automatically documented in
the I/O table and statistical methods, but have to be thought about in process
analysis.