This work provides the picture of the steady state energetics in the plasmonic catalytic system considered. In large scale chemical processes, the energy balance can show the efficiency and performance of individual components without the detailed awareness of the underlying microprocesses. Similarly in the present nanoscale system, while the underlying temporal quantum processes drive the atomic scale reactions, the energy balance from classical electromagnetic analysis shows the availability of the energy for each relevant process. Through comparison with experimental data based on bulk measurements, important insights can be derived.