Networked gas consumption by the residential sector was 14.6% lower in 2022 compared with 2021 (See Table 1).
Overall networked gas consumption was up 2.2% in 2022 compared with 2021, for a total of 56,617 gigawatt hours (GWh) (See Table 1).
Gas consumption by power plants was 8.1% higher in 2022 compared with 2021 (See Table 1).
Gas consumption by the non-residential sector was 3.1% lower in 2022 (See Table 1).
January to March accounted for 48% of total household consumption in 2022 (See Table 2D).
Median gas consumption for households was 8,449 kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2022, the lowest annual figure for the period 2013-2022 (See Table 5B).
| Table A Networked Gas Consumption by Sector 2013-2022 | ||||
| % of row | Gigawatt hours | |||
| Year | Power Plants | Non-Residential | Residential | Total |
| 2013 | 61 | 24 | 16 | 48,981 |
| 2014 | 61 | 24 | 15 | 47,167 |
| 2015 | 60 | 25 | 15 | 47,503 |
| 2016 | 63 | 23 | 13 | 53,704 |
| 2017 | 64 | 23 | 13 | 54,726 |
| 2018 | 62 | 24 | 14 | 57,129 |
| 2019 | 63 | 24 | 13 | 57,744 |
| 2020 | 63 | 23 | 14 | 57,953 |
| 2021 | 61 | 25 | 14 | 55,413 |
| 2022 | 65 | 23 | 12 | 56,617 |
| Power Plants | Non-Residential | Residential | |
| 2022 | 36.776 | 13.171 | 6.67 |
| Jan-Mar | Apr-Jun | Jul-Sep | Oct-Dec | |
| 2013 | 4.647 | 2.925 | 0.427 | 1.914 |
| 2014 | 4.454 | 1.961 | 0.416 | 1.804 |
| 2015 | 4.522 | 2.151 | 0.557 | 1.86 |
| 2016 | 3.989 | 2.416 | 0.415 | 2.001 |
| 2017 | 3.992 | 1.989 | 0.483 | 2.036 |
| 2018 | 4.658 | 2.444 | 0.367 | 2.305 |
| 2019 | 3.773 | 2.301 | 0.501 | 2.357 |
| 2020 | 4.308 | 2.012 | 0.675 | 2.415 |
| 2021 | 4.548 | 2.329 | 0.485 | 1.878 |
| 2022 | 3.853 | 1.818 | 0.377 | 1.634 |
| X-axis label | Consumption |
|---|---|
| Dublin County | 9.284 |
| Cavan | 9.448 |
| Kildare | 9.022 |
| Meath | 8.929 |
| Dublin Postal Districts | 8.91 |
| Offaly | 8.585 |
| Carlow | 8.024 |
| Wicklow | 8.134 |
| Laois | 8.275 |
| Tipperary | 7.957 |
| Louth | 7.943 |
| Monaghan | 8.283 |
| Kilkenny | 7.909 |
| Westmeath | 8.068 |
| Limerick | 7.469 |
| Clare | 7.101 |
| Cork | 6.982 |
| Galway | 7.294 |
| Waterford | 6.839 |
| Mayo | 6.958 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (31 October 2023) released Networked Gas Consumption 2022.
Commenting on the release, Kevin Hunt, Statistician in the Environment and Climate Division said: "Natural gas consumption was up 2.2% in 2022 compared with 2021, for a total of 56,617 GWh consumed across all sectors (See Table 1).
Consumption by sector
Gas consumption by the residential sector decreased by 14.6% from 2021 to 2022 (See Table 1). Total residential gas consumption for 2022 was 6,670 GWh, the lowest figure seen for the ten-year period from 2013 to 2022 (See Table 1). Non-residential gas consumption decreased in 2022 by 3.1% compared with 2021 (See Table 1).
Gas usage by power plants to generate electricity increased by 8.1% in 2022, compared with 2021 (See Table 1). This followed the restoration of the Whitegate and Huntstown gas-fired power plants. The gas consumed by power plants in 2022 was within 0.1% of the same figure for 2020 (See Table 1).
Figure 1 shows the relative proportion of consumption for residential (12%), non-residential (23%), and power plant (65%) sectors in 2022. At 65%, the proportion of gas consumption by power plants in 2022 was the highest over the ten-year period 2013-2022 (See Figure 1 and Table 1).
Seasonal trends
Figure 2 shows the strong pattern of seasonal variation in residential gas consumption. This is due to the use of gas for heating in colder months. January to March had 48% of total residential consumption for 2022, compared with 7% in July to September 2022 (See Table 2D). By contrast, gas consumption by power plants was proportionally lowest in January to March 2022, at 22% of the annual total. The peak consumption by power plants was 29% of annual consumption in July to September 2022 (See Table 2B).
Local area analysis
In the residential sector, Dublin postal districts accounted for 45% of consumption, followed by Dublin County (17%) and Cork (10%) (See Table 3B). Counties Donegal, Sligo, and Leitrim are not connected to the gas network. Dublin 15 had the highest total residential consumption among Dublin postal districts, at 323 GWh, followed by Dublin 14 with 211 GWh. The lowest residential consumption levels in the Dublin postal districts were in Dublin 02 (26 GWh) and Dublin 01 (29 GWh) (See Table 4B).
Median household consumption
The median household networked gas consumption was 8,449 kWh in 2022. This was the lowest annual figure over the ten-year period from 2013 to 2022, and a 16% decrease from the 2021 median of 10,056 kWh (See Table 5B).
Figure 3 shows the annual median residential consumption at county level. Figures for Kerry, Longford, Roscommon and Wexford are based on low meter numbers (See Table 6B) and have been omitted from the graph. The lowest county by median residential consumption in 2022 was Waterford (6,839 kWh) while Cavan (9,448 kWh) had the highest (See Table 5B and Figure 3).
Among Dublin postal districts, the three lowest by median consumption were Dublin 02 (5,537 kWh), Dublin 01 (5,829 kWh), and Dublin 08 (6,677 kWh). The three highest were Dublin 14 (12,016 kWh), Dublin 06W (10,601 kWh) and Dublin 06 (10,281 kWh) (See Table 5C).
Meter numbers
The number of non-residential meters increased by 7% from 2013 to 2022, to a total of 29,257 in 2022 (See Table 6A). The number of residential meters increased by 8% between 2013 and 2022, to a total of 694,651 (See Table 6B). Dublin postal district areas accounted for 43% of both residential and non-residential meters in 2022 (See Tables 6A and 6B).
The locations of residential meters for 2022 is shown in Figure 4. Residential meters are concentrated in large urban areas such as Dublin, Cork, and Limerick (See Figure 4 and Table 6B)".