Expert Panel: Adopt International Norms for Collecting Energy Statistics

An expert panel has recommended adopting international standards for the collection and dissemination of energy statistics in tabulation categories aligned with the International Standard Industrial Classification.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has constituted an Expert Committee on Energy Statistics under the Chairmanship of Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT-Delhi and comprising senior-level representatives from line energy ministries and domain experts from research institutions like The Energy Research Institute (TERI) and Alliance for Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), among others, a ministry statement said.

The committee undertook a comprehensive review of the 'Energy Statistics India' publication and the energy-statistics database of India, including its coverage, definitions, classification systems, data sources and estimation methodologies.

Focused attention was paid to issues like meeting International Standards on Energy Statistics, addressing major data gaps and addressing inconsistencies in the energy statistics database across energy ministries.

The committee recommended the adoption of international standards for the collection and dissemination of energy statistics in tabulation categories aligned with International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC), National Industrial Classification (NIC)-2025, and Standards International Energy-product Classification (SIEC), among others.

Uniform conversion factors should be adopted by all line energy ministries to ensure inter-ministerial consistency of their energy statistics, it added.

The panel recommended a methodology for the refinement of sectoral end-use consumption of imported coal (around 20 % of the total coal consumption in India) and domestic coal routed via auction, clubbed under the miscellaneous category.

The methodology makes use of the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) database, which captures limited industry-wise coal consumption.

The committee also recommended that the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) develop and maintain a comprehensive database under the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme.

It also pitched for a similar methodology to capture and disseminate the industry-wise end-use consumption of electricity in India by using the Annual Survey of Industry (ASI) database.

It stated that in the absence of consolidated national-level data, the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD), in its annual publication of World Energy Balance, estimates biofuel consumption in India at around 31-34 % of the total annual energy consumption.

The panel also suggested a comprehensive methodology for addressing these important data gaps to incorporate biofuel components in the energy balance table.

The consumption of electricity via captive/off-grid mode and consumption of electricity by EVs in India are among the significant data-gaps in the energy domain which has been addressed under this report, it stated.

The recommendations are expected to support evidence-based policymaking, improve data quality and comparability, and facilitate better monitoring of India's evolving energy landscape.

MoSPI emphasises that effective implementation of the recommendations will require continued collaboration and coordination among all concerned ministries and stakeholders to build a more integrated, reliable and internationally comparable energy statistics framework for the country.