An empirical analysis of electricity use and expenditure in farming households in Poland

The article presents the results of empirical research into expenditure on electricity and the dependencies of the share of these expenses with regard to the features of farming households in Poland. The source material came from empirical research conducted on a random sample of 480 farming households in Poland (each exceeding 5 ha of UAA), with multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) used in the analyses. Through a combination of survey methods and MCA, this study aims to assess electricity usage in farming households, with particular emphasis on identifying the portion of energy costs directly linked to agricultural operations. Statistical analysis demonstrated the existence of strong dependencies between the share of expenditure on electricity from agricultural production and the economic size of a farm (φ² = 0.2655), the district (φ² = 0.2561), and the agricultural production system (φ² = 0.1070). The research shows that expenditure on energy constitutes a considerable percentage of total expenses on energy in the studied farming households. The research results may become a point of reference for other techniques and tools used in energy measurements at the micro-economic level, including the combining of various approaches and the modifying of techniques and tools developed earlier. The results can also be an important source of information for the economic and institutional sphere, including operators on the electricity market.