Restaurants/Public Houses used 196 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per square metre in 2022, while Retail units used 141 kWh (See Table 5A).
Median electricity consumption increased in 2022 compared with 2021 for Restaurants/Public Houses (up 15%), Retail (up 14%) and Offices (up 2%) (See Table 2D).
Median electricity usage decreased in 2022 for Community/Day Centres (down 1%) and Primary Health Care buildings (down 4%) (See Table 2D).
A and B rated buildings used 136 kilowatt hours of electricity per square metre in 2022 (kWh/m2) compared with 103 kWh/m2 for F and G rated premises (See Table 5B).
The mean electricity consumption in 2022 for non-residential buildings built during 2005-2022 was 119 kWh/m2 (See Table 5C).
This release is based on non-domestic buildings that have had an energy audit and that used electricity as their main space heating fuel. The release was compiled by matching the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland non-domestic Building Energy Ratings file with the ESB Networks metered electricity consumption file by meter point reference number.
| Mean Electricity Consumption | |
| A/B | 70.292 |
| C | 33.829 |
| D | 24.328 |
| E | 19.305 |
| F/G | 19.34 |
| Community/Day Centre | 20.77 |
| Offices | 27.681 |
| Primary Health Care | 20.221 |
| Restaurant/Public House | 42.475 |
| Retail | 33.399 |
| A/B | F/G | |
| Community/Day Centre | 348 | 189 |
| Retail | 388 | 174 |
| Table A Mean Electricity Consumption per square metre by Year and Energy Rating 2022 | |||||
| Mean kilowatt hours per square metre | |||||
| Year | A/B | C | D | E | F/G |
| 2015 | 144 | 147 | 125 | 114 | 116 |
| 2016 | 143 | 147 | 125 | 112 | 113 |
| 2017 | 137 | 142 | 120 | 111 | 112 |
| 2018 | 145 | 142 | 126 | 113 | 111 |
| 2019 | 141 | 135 | 120 | 107 | 107 |
| 2020 | 128 | 124 | 108 | 100 | 97 |
| 2021 | 128 | 122 | 104 | 95 | 93 |
| 2022 | 136 | 126 | 110 | 98 | 103 |
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (20 July 2023) published Non-Domestic Electricity Consumption by Building Energy Ratings 2022.
Commenting on the release, Kevin Hunt, Statistician in the Environment and Climate Division, said: "This analysis combines Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland data on non-domestic Building Energy Ratings with ESB Networks data on Metered Electricity Consumption, up to the year 2022. It includes only non-domestic buildings with a Building Energy Rating (BER) audit which use electricity as their main space heating fuel.
Type of Premises
The premises type that used the most electricity per square metre in 2022 was Restaurants/Public Houses, with mean usage of 196 kWh per square metre. Next highest was the Retail category, with mean usage of 141 kWh per square metre. Other types of premises had lower levels of mean usage: 80 kWh/m2 for Offices, 78 kWh/m2 for Primary Health Clinic buildings, and 74 kWh/m2 for Community/Day Centres (See Table 5A).
Restaurants/Public Houses showed the highest increase over 2021, by 15% for total median consumption. Retail was up 14% over 2021. The increase in electricity consumption for Office premises since 2021 was lower at 2%. Overall median usage decreased for Community/Day Centres (-1%) and Primary Health Care buildings (-4%) (See Table 2D).
Electricity Consumption by Energy Rating
More energy efficient buildings used more electricity per square metre. Mean consumption was 136 kWh/m2 for A and B rated buildings, 126 kWh/m2 for C rated buildings, 110 kWh/m2 for D rated buildings, 98 kWh/m2 for E rated buildings and 103 kWh/m2 for F and G rated buildings (See Table 5B). This represented an increase from 2021 to 2022 for all energy rating classes, with consumption in A and B rated buildings up by 6%, C rated buildings by 3%, D rated buildings by 6%, E rated buildings by 3%, and F rated buildings by 11% (See Table 5B).
The increase in usage for each rating category was not uniform across each type of premises. Restaurants/Public Houses with A and B energy ratings decreased their usage in 2022 compared with 2021 (-2%), while showing increases for C (10%), D (12%), E (27%), and F and G (21%) rated buildings (See Table 3C). Retail premises were the only type of premise to show a rise in consumption over 2021 for each category of energy rating, ranging from 9% more in C rated buildings to 22% for F and G rated buildings (See Table 3C).
Variation in Demand
The diversity of businesses included in this analysis leads to a wider variation in electrical demand compared with domestic usage. The median usage offers a more stable and robust indicator of overall demand year on year. As an example, the median usage for Office in 2022 was 11,183 kWh and the median Retail usage 11,970 kWh, compared with mean usages of 27,681 kWh and 33,399 kWh respectively (See Table 2A and Table 2D).
Detailed information on the exclusions from the analysis can be found in the Background Notes Chapter of this release."