Natural gas consumption measurements at State schools first became available
via a pilot implementation of a whole-of-Victorian-government environmental
data system in DEECD in May 2013. While measurements are collected at a campus
level, this dataset aggregates data geographically by Local Government Area
(LGA). This aggregation not only ensures that individual schools remain
unidentified, but also presents a summary of overall natural gas usage within
particular geographic localities. In addition, median usage is presented
instead of average (mean) values to account for extreme levels of consumption
that can give a skewed indication of overall LGA usage.
It is important to note that in this dataset not all LGAs have figures against
them: this may be due to insufficient or non-available data (for instance, not
all schools use natural gas); or in the case where LGAs have a smaller number
of schools, data may be left out to ensure individual schools or campuses are
not identified.