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Background Notes

Gas consumption by power plants in February 2023 was 33% higher than in February 2022

Online ISSN: 2811-6240
CSO statistical publication, , 11am

Introduction

This release contains daily natural gas consumption figures from Gas Networks Ireland for all connections to the mains gas network. The figures were calculated by Gas Networks Ireland and were made available to CSO in a format of one record per day.

The CSO publishes a more detailed annual release on networked gas consumption. The release is based on meter level data which the CSO receives from Gas Networks Ireland under the Statistics Act, 1993. The annual release contains consumption per meter per quarter whereas this monthly release has daily aggregated data and is considerably more timely. There are very small differences in the networked gas consumption figures in both releases arising from the different methodology being used to calculate the figures.

Consumption Units

The data are gross calorific values expressed in gigawatt hours (GWh). A kilowatt hour is a unit of energy equivalent to one kilowatt of power sustained over an hour. A gigawatt hour is equivalent to one million kWh.

Calorific Value

Calorific Value is a measure of the energy contained in gas. The calorific value depends on the composition of the gas. It refers to the amount of energy released when a known volume of gas is completely combusted under specified conditions. The calorific value of natural gas is measured continually using process gas chromatographs.

Customer Type

Non-Daily Metered (NDM) customers have an annual consumption of less than 5.55 GWh. This category includes households and industry and services sectors with relatively low levels of demand.

Daily Metered (DM) customers have an annual consumption equal to or greater than 5.55 GWh and less than 57.5 GWh.

Large Daily Metered (LDM) are customers where the annual quantity on the first day of the capacity booking period of a large daily metered capacity booking was 57.5 GWh or higher.

Power Plants are a sub-sector of the large daily metered sector. Power generation covers gas fired thermal generation.

Gas Day

Gas Day means a period beginning at 05:00 and ending at 05:00 on the following day.

Seasonal variation

The daily natural gas consumption figures for households and power plants have a higher level of seasonal variation than the figures for large daily metered customers. On days where there is less wind available, a higher proportion of electricity is generated by gas fired thermal generation plants. Summer months are when natural gas consumption by power plants is at its highest. Household heating demand is higher in winter months hence non-daily metered natural gas consumption is highest in winter months. 

Data Quality

The non-daily read meter readings were converted to daily consumption estimates by Gas Networks Ireland.

Revisions

Data for all years are subject to revision.

Data Source

The CSO received the administrative microdata from Gas Networks Ireland as open data.

Release Frequency

This release is published on a monthly basis.

Future Developments

Gas Networks Ireland are examining whether the time series can be extended back to 2018.

Met Éireann

The maximum daily air temperature and mean wind speed data at Dublin Airport were obtained from the Met Éireann website.

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