Irish business spent €16.2bn on energy in 2022, up 83% – CSO

Irish businesses spent €16.2 billion on energy purchases in 2022, an 83 per cent increase on the previous year, new Central Statistics Office (CSO) data has revealed, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the early part of the year sent shock waves through global energy markets.

Firms resident in the Republic also increased their energy usage in volume terms, the CSO said, with the quantity of energy consumed increasing 22 per cent from 2021.

“There was a 1.3 per cent increase in energy use by the Industry sector while it rose by 47 per cent in the Services sector,” said Dympna Corry, statistician in the climate and energy division of the CSO. “Purchases of jet kerosene accounted for a large proportion of the increase in the Services sector due to a 76 per cent increase from 2,903 kilotonnes of oil equivalent (ktoe) in 2021 to 5,096 ktoe in 2022.”

The notable jump in jet fuel consumption likely reflects the recovery in air travel that began in 2022 following two years of Covid-19-related travel and public health restrictions.

Overall, the transport sector accounted for 40 per cent of the energy consumed in 2022 with the electricity and gas sectors accounting for 27 per cent.

Meanwhile, coal consumption declined a further 13 per cent in the year from 1.3 million tonnes in 2021 to 1.1 million tonnes in 2022.

Purchases of heavy fuel oil decreased by 11 per cent from 387 million litres in 2021 to 342 million litres in 2022. However, peat purchases increased by 1.5 per cent from 480,000 tonnes in 2021 to 487,000 tonnes in 2022, mostly related to its usage by power plants to generate electricity, the CSO said.