Energy use in the manufacturing sector

Energy use: Different energy products for fuel, lighting, heat and transport purposes during the reference year are considered as energy products in this statistics. The consumption of raw materials is not included and there is a distinction between purchased and self-produced energy. Self-produced energy includes by-products from production (i.e. firewood, black liquor or solid biomass waste), re-use of steam and electricity production in the business, among others.

Gigawatt hour (GWh) = million kWh

Terrawatt hour (TWh) = billion kWh

Due to the large number of different energy products in Norwegian mining and manufacturing, they have been divided into groups. In order to make it possible to find the total energy consumption within the individual energy groups and the total consumption for the company, we have converted all of the energy commodities to the common unit GW (billion watts). This has been done based on information on average energy content for the individual energy commodities.

The energy products have been divided into 10 groups, 7 groups for purchased energy and 3 groups for self-produced energy.

Purchased energy:

Electricity = Purchased electricity

Petroleum products = Purchased light heating oils, heavy distillates, heavy fuel oils, waste oils, kerosene and auto diesel (tax-exempt).

Gas products = Purchased LPG (liquid propane and butane gas), LNG (liquid natural gas), NGG (natural gas in gas form), fuel gas and CO-gas.

Coal products = Purchased coal, coke and petrol coke used as fuel and as a reduction agent.

Steam and district heating = Purchased district heating and steam.

Solid biomass and wastes = Purchased wood, biomass waste and other waste.

Petroleum products for transport = Purchased gasoline, auto diesel and marine gas oils.

Self-produced energy:

Electricity = Self-produced electricity

Solid biomass and wastes = Self-produced waste of wood, black liquor and other wastes.

Gas = Self-produced natural gas in gas form, fuel gas, CO-gas and other gases.

Local kind-of-activity unit: The statistics have local kind-of-activity unit as an observation unit and an analysis unit. A local kind-of-activity unit is defined as a functional unit, which at a single physical location is engaged mainly in activities within a specific activity group. An enterprise is defined as an organizational unit, and consists of one or more local kind-of-activity units.

The following guidelines are used in order to divide the activity of an enterprise into separate local kind-of-activity units; Activities engaged by an enterprise in different municipalities are treated as separate local kind-of-activity units. Activities in different industrial classes (4-digit) can be classified as separate local kind-of-activity units even if the activity is located at the same site. To divide a local unit into several local kind-of-activity units, each of the activities has to be of a certain size, normally engaging at least 5 people.

Norwegian Standard Industrial Classification (SIC2007), which is based on the industrial classifications approved by the EU (NACE Rev. 2) and the UN (ISIC Rev. 3).

Name: Energy use in the manufacturing sector
Topic: Energy and manufacturing

Division for Energy, Environmental and Transport Statistics

National level

Yearly. Preliminary figures are published within 6 months after the end of the reference year. Final figures are published within 18 months after the end of the reference year.

The figures are included in the energy balance sheet. The energy balance sheet is used in annual reports to Eurostat, IEA and OECD.

The data are stored in Oracle databases and as SAS data. Revised micro data and raw data are also stored permanently as text files.

The statistics provides information about energy use in the mining and manufacturing industry. Statistics Norway has collected data on energy use as a part of the structural business statistics for manufacturing since the 1970s. The data on energy use has been collected in a separate survey since 1998. This is a part of an ongoing project between Statistics Norway and the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE). The Energy Act is the legal basis for the data collection. Statistics Norway keeps a copy of the data using the Statistics Act to compile official statistics. The purpose of this project is to strengthen the statistics on energy use, in terms of content, quality, timeliness, and new statistical products.

The statistics are used by public institutions (The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, the government, etc.), different analytical institutions and branch organizations. In Statistics Norway the statistics are important as input in the national accounts, in the energy accounts and in the energy balance sheet, as well as in the emission statistics. The raw data are also important in other analyses and research in Statistics Norway.

No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.

The statistics on energy use in manufacturing has the same population as the annual structural business statistics for the manufacturing sector. The connection between these two statistics makes it possible to produce energy indicators, where the energy use data are connected with different activity data, for example number of hours worked by employees, employment, value added, production value, etc.

The statistics for energy use in the manufacturing sector is important input for the calculation of the energy accounts and energy balance sheet. Energy used for transport is moved to the transport sector and energy consumption in refineries and coal production is classified as consumption by energy producing industries. The figures for manufacturing and mining in the energy accounts and energy balance will therefore be slightly lower than the figures in the statistics on energy use in manufacturing.

The statistics is also important input for the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions and the national accounts.

The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).

The information is collected by Statistics Norway on behalf of the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) in agreement with the Act on the generation, transmission, trading, distribution and use of energy etc. (Energy Act) of June 29 1990, No. 50 § 10-1, third paragraph, first sentence.

Not relevant

From the reference year 1998 the statistics cover all existing local kind-of-activity units within mining and manufacturing, which means division 05, 07,08, 09.9 og 10-33 in the Norwegian Standard Industrial Classification. Statistics Norway collects data from a representative selection of local kind-of-activity units from the population. For the remainder units the energy use data are estimated. There are about 18 000 units in the population.

Until the reference year 1997 enterprises with individual proprietorship where the owner is working alone (one-man-enterprise), and other local kind-of-activity units with employment less than half a man-year worked, are not included. The change in the population from the reference year 1998 leads to a break in the statistics.

Data on energy use are collected from a sample of local units in manufacturing, mining and quarrying. Information on activity codes, addresses and other information are collected from the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises of Statistics Norway.

Approximately 2 300 local kind-of-activity units are selected for the sample survey. The sample consists of the largest units in each subgroup, differentiated by number of employees, and some small and medium sized units. Small units are chosen randomly from a stratified sample. The units in the sample cover about 95 per cent of the total energy use and about 90 per cent of the total energy costs in the mining and manufacturing sector. The sample consists of a sufficient number of small and medium sized units, and the samples are randomly selected. This makes the estimated energy use for the remainder units as correct as possible and avoids systematic errors in the estimation.

The data for this statistics are reported electronically in questionnaires which are sent out in January after the reference year. We use the same form for all the units. The Energy Act is used, and the units are required to report within the deadline in February. NVE sends out the final reminder in March. Units that do not respond after the final reminder have to pay a coercive fine.

Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data. We use the "top down" approach to edit the data. This means that big units are edited first. The units are already divided into two groups according to the type of form they have received. The around 600 largest companies, which contribute over 90 percent of the total energy use, are then sorted and controlled in descending order. The forms do also go through a set of controls that flag outliers and other possible errors.

The data is also controlled at a macro level. The energy use in one division is for example checked against the same division the previous year. Descriptive statistics such as median and standard deviation are also used to control the various energy products.

Turnover data from the short-term turnover statistics (by preliminary figures) and energy costs from the structural business statistics for the manufacturing sector (by final figures) are used by estimating energy use data for units outside the sample.

Not relevant

Employees of Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality.

Statistics Norway does not publish figures if there is a risk of the respondent’s contribution being identified. This means that, as a general rule, figures are not published if fewer than three units form the basis of a cell in a table or if the contribution of one or two respondents constitutes a very large part of the cell total.

Statistics Norway can make exceptions to the general rule if deemed necessary to meet the requirements of the EEA agreement, if the respondent is a public authority, if the respondent has consented to this, or when the information disclosed is openly accessible to the public.

More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.

The statistics covers all local kind-of-activity units in mining and manufacturing from reference year 1998. Businesses with individual proprietorship where the owner was working alone (one-man-enterprise), and other local kind-of-activity units with employment less than half a man-year worked, were not included before 1998. New production routines and more resources for editing lead to data of higher quality from 1998. The new population and higher quality of the data led to a break in the statistics from 1997 to 1998. It is still possible to continue the old time series with the same population and contents as before 1998.

New standard industrial classification SIC2007 (based on NACE Rev.2) makes a break in the time series for the statistics on energy use in manufacturing and industry in 2003. For the years 1990-2003, the statistics are published by standard industrial classification SN2002 (based on NACE Rev. 1.1). Both time series are published in StatBank.

Coal and coke used as a reducing agent during production is regarded as fuel in the energy balance and is therefore included in the statistics on energy use in manufacturing. This is, for example, used in the production of pure metals. Coal and coke used as a reducing agent is included in the Statbank from 2003. The costs are included from 2011. This causes a break in the time series.

The results of a statistical survey may contain some collection and processing errors. Collection errors may occur in the data due to oblivion and misunderstandings, etc. Processing errors may occur in the data due to faulty assessments when editing and in the exercise of quality controls.

The units in the sample are asked to report the use (value and amount) for different energy products. Lack of knowledge of the different energy products, ambiguities in the questionnaire or in the guidelines and misunderstandings of the variables and valuations may lead to uncertainty in the figures from the survey.

Despite the numerous controls in the sample, there is still a possibility for errors in the data. For example errors that are not caught by the existing control routines or ones caused by incorrect assessments from the adviser from Statistics Norway.

Sampling errors, meaning the uncertainty caused by the data coming from a sample from a population, is not measured. Since the selected units cover such a large part of the total energy use, the uncertainty is estimated to be low.

During editing the energy use for the units in the sample, some errors in the units' industrial classification are discovered. These are corrected in the Local kind-of-acivity units register.

A revision is a planned change to figures that have already been published, for example when releasing final figures as a follow-up to published preliminary figures. See also Statistics Norway’s principles for revisions.

Revisions in previously published seasonally adjusted figures can take place when new observations (or revised previous observations) are included in the basis of calculation. The scope of the revision is usually greatest in the most relevant part (last 1–2 years) of seasonally adjusted time series. A corresponding revision in trends is also typical, particularly at the end of the time series. The extent of the revision of trends and seasonally adjusted figures is partly determined by the revision policy, see Section 4 of the European Statistical System (ESS) Guidelines on Seasonal Adjustment on the Eurostat website. For more information on the revision of seasonally adjusted figures, see the ‘About seasonal adjustment’ section in the relevant statistics.