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How much Electricity do we Consume? A Guide to German and European Electricity Consumption and Generation Data

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  • Schumacher, Maximilian
  • Hirth, Lion

Abstract

Accurate information about electricity generation and consumption is crucial to power system modelling. Several institutions publish such data: for European countries these include the association of system operators ENTSO-E, the EU body Eurostat, and the International Energy Agency; for Germany they comprise the sector organisation BDEW, the federal statistical office Statistisches Bundesamt, the working group AG Energiebilanzen, and the four transmission system operators. This paper compares the terminology, methodology, and reported data of these sources, finding inconsistencies at all three levels. For example, annual electricity generation from wind and solar power in Germany differs by as much as 10% – 20%, depending on who you ask. ENTSO-E publishes “hourly load”, which is widely used among power system modellers. The data documentation provides a (constant) “representativity factor” that should be used to scale the hourly load values. However, we find that the scaling factor, when derived from ENTSO-E’s own more comprehensive data sources (“monthly consumption”), is neither the one provided, nor is it constant. The deviation is particularly worrying in Germany, where peak electricity demand might be underestimated by up to a quarter, and so we propose a scaling procedure that avoids such bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Schumacher, Maximilian & Hirth, Lion, 2016. "How much Electricity do we Consume? A Guide to German and European Electricity Consumption and Generation Data," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 230596, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:feemcl:230596
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.230596
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hirth, Lion & Ueckerdt, Falko, 2013. "Redistribution effects of energy and climate policy: The electricity market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 934-947.
    2. Hirth, Lion, 2013. "The market value of variable renewables," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 218-236.
    3. Hirth, Lion & Ziegenhagen, Inka, 2015. "Balancing power and variable renewables: Three links," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1035-1051.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Knaut, Andreas & Paschmann, Martin, 2017. "Decoding Restricted Participation in Sequential Electricity Markets," EWI Working Papers 2017-5, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI), revised 31 Aug 2017.
    2. Sebastian Wehrle & Johannes Schmidt, 2016. "Optimal emission prices for a district heating system owner," Working Papers 642016, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Institute for Sustainable Economic Development.
    3. Knaut, Andreas & Paschmann, Martin, 2017. "Price Volatility in Commodity Markets with Restricted Participation," EWI Working Papers 2017-2, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    4. Hirth, Lion & Mühlenpfordt, Jonathan & Bulkeley, Marisa, 2018. "The ENTSO-E Transparency Platform – A review of Europe’s most ambitious electricity data platform," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 1054-1067.
    5. Knaut, Andreas & Paschmann, Martin, 2019. "Price volatility in commodity markets with restricted participation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 37-51.
    6. Wehrle, Sebastian & Schmidt, Johannes, 2016. "Optimal emission prices for a district heating system owner," Discussion Papers DP-64-2016, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Institute for Sustainable Economic Development.
    7. Germeshausen, Robert & Wölfing, Nikolas, 2020. "How marginal is lignite? Two simple approaches to determine price-setting technologies in power markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    8. repec:zbw:inwedp:642016 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Philip Beran & Christian Pape & Christoph Weber, 2018. "Modelling German electricity wholesale spot prices with a parsimonious fundamental model – Validation and application," EWL Working Papers 1801, University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Management Science and Energy Economics, revised Mar 2018.
    10. Philip Beran & Arne Vogler, 2021. "Multi-Day-Ahead Electricity Price Forecasting: A Comparison of fundamental, econometric and hybrid Models," EWL Working Papers 2102, University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Management Science and Energy Economics, revised Oct 2021.
    11. Germeshausen, Robert & Wölfing, Nikolas, 2019. "How marginal is lignite? Two simple approaches to determine price-setting technologies in power markets," ZEW Discussion Papers 19-031, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Resource /Energy Economics and Policy;

    JEL classification:

    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques

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