Energy Demand Methodology In practice, there are two basic methodological approaches used to model the interactions between energy, economy and environment, the top-down approach and the bottom-up approach. The commonality of both of these approaches is their focus on analysing the impact of different policies. The main differences between top-down and bottom-up in essence they “differ mainly with respect to emphasis placed on a detailed, technologically based treatment of the energy system and a theoretically consistent description of the general economy [top-down],” . The top-down approach typically describes the energy system in an aggregated way and as a sub-sector of the entire economy, and the model results are mainly induced by relative price changes. Bottom-up (or systems engineering) models are designed to consider the energy sector in relatively great detail, and they do not include a complete model of economic activity (as is the case in top-down models) The general approach used for this methodology is a combination of the two. The energy demand side utilised a top-down approach and RES generation being a mixture of the two. For demand, it involves taking national energy balance data and to proportion data down, using appropriate ratios, to the regional or local level. In Ireland, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) gathers national energy consumption data for the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (DCENR). All energy imports are recorded by the state through the ports and the conversion of ‘Primary Energy’ into electricity is obtained from the National Electricity distributor (Electricity Supply Board (ESB) Networks in Ireland), who manage all sources of electricity being supplied into the Irish National Grid. In Ireland, SEAI also gathers data from other Government Departments and Agencies, energy suppliers and distributors. Based on this data they can determine, with some accuracy, the following information: Total Primary Energy Requirement (TPER) Electricity Generated Indigenous fossil fuel production (in Ireland Peat Briquette production) Indigenous renewable energy production Gross Final Consumption (GFC) Total Final Energy Consumption (TFEC) Total Primary Energy Requirement (TPER): This is the total requirement for all uses of energy, including energy used to transform one energy form to another (e.g. burning fossil fuel to generate electricity) and energy used by the final consumer.
Energy Demand Methodology In practice, there are two basic methodological approaches used to model the interactions between energy, economy and environment, the top-down approach and the bottom-up approach. The commonality of both of these approaches is their focus on analysing the impact of different policies. The main differences between top-down and bottom-up in essence they “differ mainly with respect to emphasis placed on a detailed, technologically based treatment of the energy system and a theoretically consistent description of the general economy [top-down],” . The top-down approach typically describes the energy system in an aggregated way and as a sub-sector of the entire economy, and the model results are mainly induced by relative price changes. Bottom-up (or systems engineering) models are designed to consider the energy sector in relatively great detail, and they do not include a complete model of economic activity (as is the case in top-down models) The general approach used for this methodology is a combination of the two. The energy demand side utilised a top-down approach and RES generation being a mixture of the two. For demand, it involves taking national energy balance data and to proportion data down, using appropriate ratios, to the regional or local level. In Ireland, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) gathers national energy consumption data for the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (DCENR). All energy imports are recorded by the state through the ports and the conversion of ‘Primary Energy’ into electricity is obtained from the National Electricity distributor (Electricity Supply Board (ESB) Networks in Ireland), who manage all sources of electricity being supplied into the Irish National Grid. In Ireland, SEAI also gathers data from other Government Departments and Agencies, energy suppliers and distributors. Based on this data they can determine, with some accuracy, the following information: Total Primary Energy Requirement (TPER) Electricity Generated Indigenous fossil fuel production (in Ireland Peat Briquette production) Indigenous renewable energy production Gross Final Consumption (GFC) Total Final Energy Consumption (TFEC) Total Primary Energy Requirement (TPER): This is the total requirement for all uses of energy, including energy used to transform one energy form to another (e.g. burning fossil fuel to generate electricity) and energy used by the final consumer.