Energy, climate and data glossary

MW

Megawatt

A unit of power describing an instantaneous production or consumption capacity.

kWh

Kilowatt-hour

A widely used energy unit for consumption and prices. 1 kWh is the energy from 1 kW used for one hour.

MWh

Megawatt-hour

An energy unit equal to 1,000 kWh. A 1 MW installation running for one hour at full power produces 1 MWh.

GWh

Gigawatt-hour

An energy unit equal to 1,000 MWh. EnergyBoard uses it for annual electricity generation.

TWh

Terawatt-hour

An energy unit equal to 1,000 GWh, or one billion kWh.

TJ

Terajoule

An energy unit used in several Eurostat balances, including households and transport. 1 TJ ≈ 277.78 MWh, or 0.27778 GWh.

PJ

Petajoule

An energy unit equal to 1,000 TJ. EnergyBoard uses PJ to make large transport volumes easier to read. 1 PJ ≈ 277.78 GWh.

toe

Tonne of oil equivalent

A conventional unit used to compare different forms of energy. Eurostat convention: 1 toe = 41.868 GJ, about 11.63 MWh.

kgoe

Kilogram of oil equivalent

One thousandth of a toe.

Mtoe

Million tonnes of oil equivalent

Used for very large energy quantities. 1 Mtoe equals one million toe, about 11.63 TWh.

€/kWh

Euro per kilowatt-hour

A price paid for a quantity of energy. EnergyBoard uses it for household and non-household electricity and gas prices.

Ex-tax / ex-VAT / all taxes

Price tax levels

Eurostat price series distinguish prices excluding taxes, prices including taxes except VAT, and prices including all taxes. EnergyBoard states the scope used.

Non-household

Non-household consumer

Eurostat category for consumers that are not households. EnergyBoard may use “business” as editorial wording while retaining the exact statistical scope.

€/kgoe

Euro per kilogram of oil equivalent

An energy productivity unit expressing economic value produced per kgoe of energy accounted for by the indicator.

%

Percentage

A relative share out of 100.

pt

Percentage point

The direct arithmetic difference between percentages. Moving from 20% to 25% is +5 percentage points.

Energy dependency

Energy dependency rate

An indicator of how strongly a country relies on net imports to meet its energy needs.

Final consumption

Final energy consumption

Energy delivered to final users after transformation and system losses, including households, industry, services and transport.

Energy productivity

Economic value per unit of energy

The relationship between economic activity and energy consumed. EnergyBoard expresses it in €/kgoe.

Installed capacity

Available generation power

Nominal power of electricity-generation installations, measured in MW. It is not the same as actual generation in GWh.

Electricity mix

Breakdown of electricity generation

The shares of different sources in electricity generation, such as nuclear, renewables, fossil fuels and other sources.

HDD

Heating degree days

A weather-based index describing theoretical building heating needs. In Eurostat’s method, days with mean temperature ≤15°C contribute using an 18°C reference. It is not an energy-consumption unit.

CDD

Cooling degree days

A weather-based index describing theoretical cooling needs. In Eurostat’s method, days with mean temperature ≥24°C contribute using a 21°C reference. It is not an energy-consumption unit.

NUTS 2

European statistical region

The second level of the EU NUTS territorial classification, used for regional policy and comparable regional statistics.

Energy poverty

Difficulty heating the home

On EnergyBoard, the main indicator is the share of people reporting that they cannot keep their home adequately warm. It captures an important dimension of energy poverty without covering every aspect of the concept.

Adequately warm home

Ability to keep the home warm

A Eurostat survey indicator expressed as a percentage of people. It is not a measured indoor temperature and not heating consumption in kWh.

Central heating

Central heating system

Survey category describing a system that distributes heat to several rooms from a central installation.

District heating

Heat network / district heating

Heat supplied to the dwelling through a collective network outside the building. Eurostat distinguishes it from individual systems.

Individual heating

Individual heating system

Eurostat category for a heating system specific to the dwelling, distinct from district heating and the central-heating survey category.

Energy-efficiency improvement

Recent improvement of the dwelling

Eurostat indicator for people living in dwellings that received energy-efficiency improvements during the previous five years.

Conventional dwelling

Census 2021 housing unit

EnergyBoard keeps conventional-dwelling counts separate from survey percentages referring to people.

Occupied dwelling

Occupied conventional dwelling

A conventional dwelling occupied at the census reference point, used to distinguish occupied from unoccupied stock.

Unoccupied dwelling

Unoccupied conventional dwelling

A conventional dwelling not occupied at the census reference point. EnergyBoard derives its share from total conventional dwellings.

Tenure status

Owner, tenant or other status

Statistical breakdown by tenure. Exact categories depend on the Eurostat dataset.

Construction period

Age of the housing stock

Census 2021 classes used to distribute dwellings by construction period, for example before 1919, 1961–1980 or 2016 and after.

AROPE

At risk of poverty or social exclusion

European indicator used as a breakdown variable in several housing datasets. EnergyBoard uses it to compare selected results by risk status.

Census 2021

European population and housing census

Data used by EnergyBoard for housing stock, building type, occupancy and construction period. Structural housing-stock data refer to 2021.

A

Annual data

Annual frequency in Eurostat datasets. A 2024 value refers to reference year 2024 even if published or revised later.

H1 / H2

Half-year period

Electricity and gas prices are published twice a year. H1 is the first half and H2 the second half.

Eurostat dataset

Eurostat data table

A statistical table identified by a code such as nrg_bal_c or nrg_chddr2_a. EnergyBoard keeps the source code visible for traceability.