Importance of Energy Balance in Energy Statistics and Energy Policies

From fueling our vehicles to powering our lights and HVAC systems, energy underpins our modern lives. With such paramount significance, the tracking of energy statistics is an often overlooked yet important activity. Entire agencies, including the United Nations Statistics Division and the International Energy Agency, have teams dedicated to tracking energy commodities and monitoring their global trade. This is done to inform audiences ranging from politicians to the general public. Additionally, energy statistics form the basis of many models, whether it be for the world or for a specific territory. Statisticians from these organizations and others gather energy statistics and present them in the form of energy balances. These balances provide a comprehensive view of how energy flows in a given territory, from the extraction of primary energy resources to their transformation into secondary energy products, and how energy is utilized in the territory’s demand sectors, including industry, residential, commercial/services, agriculture, transport, and others. This chapter serves as a guide on how to develop energy balances.