WHAT IS ENERGY EFFICIENCY - CONCEPTS, INDICATORS AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES

This paper critically reviews the range of energy efficiency indicator s that can be used, particularly at the policy level, Traditional ther modynamic indicators of energy efficiency were found to be of limited use, as they give insufficient attention to required end use services, The specific limitations and appropriate uses of physical-thermodynam ic, economic-thermodynamic and pure economic indicators of energy effi ciency are also considered, The paper concludes with a discussion of t he persistent methodological problems and issues which are encountered when attempting to operationalize all of the energy efficiency indica tors. These include the role of value judgements in the construction o f energy efficiency indicators, the energy quality problem, the bounda ry problem, the joint production problem and the question of isolating the underlying technical energy efficiency trend from the aggregate i ndicator. (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.