01
Resource / source
Where does the energy originate?
Our approach / Energy framework
One energy system.
Several ways to understand it.
Classify the source, the product, the delivery chain and the service separately. A record can belong to several dimensions without forcing unlike things into the same category.
A working vocabulary, not measured coverage. These are Grid’s proposed navigation and metadata dimensions. They are not an official classification or a claim that we already hold data in every category. The code-level crosswalk to the UN’s energy-product classification remains to be completed.
02
Energy product / carrier
What form of energy is delivered or traded?
03
Value-chain position
Which activity or transaction is being examined?
04
End-use service
What does the customer need to accomplish?
05
User / market segment
Whose experience is represented?
06
Delivery / business model
How is the service made available and paid for?
07
Performance / outcome
What determines whether the service works?
08
Place, time, institutions & finance
Which contextual identifiers make comparison meaningful?
See how the dimensions connect
Follow a question through the system.
Three conceptual examples. No customer, outlet or project observations are implied.
Electric cooking
Conceptual classification example—not an observed household or test result.
- Resource / source
- Mixed / unknown until the supply mix is established
- Energy product / carrier
- Electricity
- Value-chain position
- Retail, installation, maintenance
- End-use service
- Cooking
- User / market segment
- Household
- Delivery / business model
- National grid; appliance purchase or financing to establish
- Performance / outcome
- Cost, reliability, repair access, continued use
- Place, time, institutions & finance
- Record location, observation period, supplier and financing terms
Small-quantity fuel retail
Conceptual study design—not mapped outlets, customer evidence or an inference about legality.
- Resource / source
- Petroleum
- Energy product / carrier
- Petrol, subject to confirmation
- Value-chain position
- Distribution and retail
- End-use service
- Mobility
- User / market segment
- Riders and small enterprises, as defined by the study
- Delivery / business model
- Retail fuel; minimum transaction and unit require observation
- Performance / outcome
- Cash required, travel time, stock availability, safe service
- Place, time, institutions & finance
- Bounded location and period; consent, safety and controlled location access
Geothermal project
Conceptual classification example—not a verified development project.
- Resource / source
- Geothermal
- Energy product / carrier
- Electricity or direct heat, depending on the project
- Value-chain position
- Exploration, development, conversion or generation
- End-use service
- Service depends on the offtaker and project use
- User / market segment
- Utility or industrial user, subject to project evidence
- Delivery / business model
- Project-specific supply and commercial arrangement
- Performance / outcome
- Resource certainty, milestones, cost and service reliability
- Place, time, institutions & finance
- Project ID, owner, location, stage, permitting and finance evidence
Reference: United Nations Statistics Division, Standard International Energy Products Classification overview, reviewed 21 October 2026. Edition and code-level mapping must be recorded before any claim of formal alignment.
A framework should make the next question clearer.
Use it to define what a source can answer—and what still needs to be measured.