In order to widen the application of statistical energy analysis (SEA), a reformulation is proposed. Contrary to classical SEA, the model described here, statistical modal energy distribution analysis (SmEdA), does not assume equipartition of modal energies. Theoretical derivations are based on dual modal formulation described in Maxit and Guyader (Journal of Sound and Vibration 239 (2001) 907) and Maxit (Ph.D. Thesis, Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon, France 2000) for the general case of coupled continuous elastic systems. Basic SEA relations describing the power flow exchanged between two oscillators are used to obtain modal energy equations. They permit modal energies of coupled subsystems to be determined from the knowledge of modes of uncoupled subsystems. The link between SEA and SmEdA is established and make it possible to mix the two approaches: SmEdA for subsystems where equipartition is not verified and SEA for other subsystems. Three typical configurations of structural couplings are described for which SmEdA improves energy prediction compared to SEA: (a) coupling of subsystems with low modal overlap, (b) coupling of heterogeneous subsystems, and (c) case of localized excitations. The application of the proposed method is not limited to theoretical structures, but could easily be applied to complex structures by using a finite element method (FEM). In this case, FEM are used to calculate the modes of each uncoupled subsystems; these data are then used in a second step to determine the modal coupling factors necessary for SmEdA to model the coupling.