METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
One of the major challenges in the production of the Energy Account is the adjustment of available physical measures of energy supply and use to approximate a preferred conceptual basis for the data.
The 2001-02 to 2006-07 supply use tables, as published in the Energy Account, Australia, 2006-07 (cat. no. 4604.0), have been included as part of this publication. The methods of re-allocation of transport fuel and energy use in the service industry for these years have remained unchanged and are described in the Explanatory Notes of that publication.
The availability of data collected as part of the Energy, Water and Environment Survey (EWES), conducted in relation to the reference period 2008-09, has resulted in improved methodology for the re-allocation of energy use information both in transport and across industries. This information has also enabled the ABARES energy balance sheet information to be adjusted to closely align with the ANZSIC 06 industry classification. The methodology for these adjustments are described below and relate to the reference years 2007-08 and 2008-09 only.
Data for the years 2001-02 to 2004-05 remain unchanged. There are some minor revisions to the 2005-06 and 2006-07 data.
In publishing time series energy intensity data, ABS has adjusted pre 2008-09 data based on information from the EWES to enable information to be compared on a consistent basis. The ANZSIC 06 industry classification was used to support comparison with the Industry Gross Value Added data on the same industry classification.
For more information please contact Karen Connaughton on 02 62525337
RE-ALLOCATION OF PETROL, DIESEL AND LPG USE BY INDUSTRY AND HOUSEHOLDS
In the Energy Account, Australia, consumption of petrol, diesel and LPG is attributed to households and industries. In ABARES' Australian Energy Statistics, physical use of these fuels is assigned on the basis of activity type, rather than according to industry of ownership. For example, fuel used by a truck owned by a mining company and operating between mining sites would likely be treated as transport activity in Australian Energy Statistics but an industry-based view would assign this use to the mining industry. This section describes the methodology developed to re-allocate activity-based fuel use data from Australian Energy Statistics onto the ANZSIC industry basis used in Energy Account, Australia.
The ABS Survey of Motor Vehicle Use (SMVU) provides a breakdown of household and non-household use of petrol, diesel and LPG. This is the starting point for re-allocating use of these fuel types according to characteristics of the vehicle's owner. Data on fuel used by general government units are directly collected by government. The ABS' Energy, Water and Environment Survey (EWES) collected transport fuel (LPG, petrol and diesel) expenses for all non-general government businesses excluding the water supply industry (ANZSIC Subdivision 28). Also taken into consideration is the need to derive comparable estimates of transport fuel expense for the Finance, Insurance and Agriculture industries that were not covered in the EWES. Re-allocation for the water supply industry was not undertaken due to insufficient available data to derive an estimate.
In practice, application of the fuel use re-allocation methodology impacts significantly on derived estimates of fuel use. For example, the proportion of refined fuel use attributed to households ('residential') in Australian Energy Statistics is negligible, since an activity basis of reporting will attribute this fuel use to 'transport'. However, when usage is recorded on the basis of ownership, households are the most significant single user of refined fuels. The implications are also significant for industry-based measures of energy intensity. This publication presents energy intensity measures utilising ANZSIC-based measures of physical energy use in combination with ANZSIC-based measures of Industry Gross Value Added — which is both conceptually appropriate, and for a number of industries, significantly different to estimates derived using a non-ANZSIC industry use of energy products.
Prior to 2007-08, the breakdown for the fuel re-allocations was calculated based on the methodology constructed in the previous Energy Account. This change in re-allocation methodology for the 2008-09 and 2007-08 reference periods has resulted in some large changes in the fuel re-allocation estimates to the Construction and 'Commercial and Services' industries.
INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION
Industry classifications used in in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 supply/use and energy intensity tables generally follow the 2006 edition of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC). The Energy, Water and Environment Survey (EWES) data were used to adjust ABARES' Australian Energy Statistics. However, given the level of detail collected in the EWES, re-allocation of energy use by some low energy consuming industry classes was not possible.
The next release of ABARES' Australian Energy Statistics will be more aligned to ANZSIC 06 and as a result this re-allocation will not be required for future releases of the ABS Energy Account.
USE OF ENERGY PRODUCTS BY SERVICE INDUSTRIES
ABARES' Australian Energy Statistics focuses on the larger users of energy products and therefore emphasises Manufacturing, Mining, Agriculture, Transport and similar industries. The energy use of service industries is essentially grouped into one category named 'Commercial and Services'. Although the individual service industries are of lesser importance to overall energy use, there is nevertheless considerable interest in the energy usage of these industries.
This publication provides a breakdown of energy use (in physical terms) of individual service industries. For 2007-08 and 2008-09 the breakdown was produced based on an analysis of EWES data from which the proportions of energy use by the 'Commercial and Services' industries could be calculated.
Prior to 2007-08, the breakdown for the 'Commercial and Services' industries was calculated based on the methodology constructed in the previous Energy Account.
ALLOCATION OF ENERGY CONVERSIONS TO USING INDUSTRY AND TYPE OF ENERGY PRODUCT
In order to present a full picture of gross physical supply and use of energy products, it is necessary to allocate all energy conversions by type of energy product and by industry of use. ABARES' Australian Energy Statistics provides a comprehensive picture of physical supply and use across a detailed grouping of energy products and across various end users of energy. Key energy conversions, both gains and losses, are also described but not fully allocated.
For each type of energy product, Energy Account, Australia has allocated all energy conversions to the industry of use. This ensures that monetary measures of supply and use of energy products are comparable to physical measures.
In most cases, this allocation has been relatively straightforward. For example, a large 'brown coal' loss of energy on conversion described as 'electricity generation' is a clear case of brown coal energy lost in conversion to electricity and is therefore attributed to the electricity supply industry. The larger energy conversions all proved relatively straightforward to assign. However, a number of the smaller energy conversions described in Australian Energy Statistics are less obvious and involved some degree of investigation of energy conversion types and of relevant industrial processes. ABARES analysts provided very good assistance in these inquires. Nevertheless, in some cases the nature of the conversion is inferred rather than unequivocally known. These cases are all small in scale and have a negligible impact on the analytical utility of the data.
DATA CONFRONTATION AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS
Broadly, the approach adopted in this publication has been to place data in a supply and use framework. This allows us to examine and confront data available from the various sources and, after investigation, make judgements about what data are likely to be of the highest quality. These data are given preference and are used as benchmarks to adjust data considered of lower quality or to derive some items as a residual. Generally, the estimates of supply into the economy have been used to benchmark the data for use of energy products.
The approach described above is a well-practised technique in national accounting and in various satellite accounts.
Quality Declaration 
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