Impact of the Lockdown during the COVID-19 Pandemic on Electricity Use by Residential Users

Sławomir Bielecki, Tadeusz Skoczkowski, Lidia Sobczak, Janusz Buchoski, Łukasz Maciąg and Piotr Dukat
Additional contact information
Sławomir Bielecki: Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 21/25 Nowowiejska St. 00–665 Warsaw, Poland
Tadeusz Skoczkowski: Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 21/25 Nowowiejska St. 00–665 Warsaw, Poland
Lidia Sobczak: Faculty of Management, Warsaw University of Technology, 85 Narbutta St. 02-524 Warsaw, Poland
Janusz Buchoski: Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 21/25 Nowowiejska St. 00–665 Warsaw, Poland
Łukasz Maciąg: innogy Stoen Operator Sp. z o.o., 46 Piękna St. 00–672 Warsaw, Poland
Piotr Dukat: innogy Stoen Operator Sp. z o.o., 46 Piękna St. 00–672 Warsaw, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-32

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown can be regarded as a forced social experiment, the results of which show how to use energy under specific conditions. During this period, there was a reduction in electricity consumption at the level of the power system, but a different specificity distinguishes the group of household users. The article aims at presenting and analysing the identified issues concerning residential electricity users based on the experience from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Data from energy meters from almost 7000 flats in Warsaw’s housing estates during the lockdown in 2020 and the analogous period before the pandemic were used. The analysis showed that, on average, residential users staying practically the whole day in their flats increased their energy consumption, but without increasing their average daily peak power, smoothing the profile in the morning hours to the level reaching the peak power that had occurred in the analogous period before the lockdown. The peak power of the sections feeding the different numbers of dwellings also remained practically unchanged during the lockdown compared to the pre-pandemic period. The pressure to work and educate remotely should contribute to an increase in the digital competence of society, which may result in an increased interest in new forms of activity and cooperation based on demand-side response and prosumption mechanisms, with digital settlements for energy exchange and services.

Keywords: power use; COVID-19 pandemic; lockdown; load profiles; residential electricity users; bootstrapping; peak power; prosumer; digital settlements; Demand Side Response (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/4/980/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/4/980/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:4:p:980-:d:498611

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().