Impact of COVID-19 on Electricity Demand: Deriving Minimum States of System Health for Studies on Resilience

Smruti Manjunath, Madhura Yeligeti, Maria Fyta, Jannik Haas and Hans-Christian Gils
Additional contact information
Smruti Manjunath: Institute of Networked Energy Systems, German Aerospace Center (DLR), 70563 Stuttgart, Germany
Madhura Yeligeti: Institute of Networked Energy Systems, German Aerospace Center (DLR), 70563 Stuttgart, Germany
Maria Fyta: Institute for Computational Physics, University of Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Jannik Haas: Institute of Networked Energy Systems, German Aerospace Center (DLR), 70563 Stuttgart, Germany
Hans-Christian Gils: Institute of Networked Energy Systems, German Aerospace Center (DLR), 70563 Stuttgart, Germany

Data, 2021, vol. 6, issue 7, 1-20

Abstract: To assess the resilience of energy systems, i.e., the ability to recover after an unexpected shock, the system’s minimum state of service is a key input. Quantitative descriptions of such states are inherently elusive. The measures adopted by governments to contain COVID-19 have provided empirical data, which may serve as a proxy for such states of minimum service. Here, we systematize the impact of the adopted COVID-19 measures on the electricity demand. We classify the measures into three phases of increasing stringency, ranging from working from home to soft and full lockdowns, for four major electricity consuming countries of Europe. We use readily accessible data from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity as a basis. For each country and phase, we derive representative daily load profiles with hourly resolution obtained by k-medoids clustering. The analysis could unravel the influence of the different measures to the energy consumption and the differences among the four countries. It is observed that the daily peak load is considerably flattened and the total electricity consumption decreases by up to 30% under the circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 restrictions. These demand profiles are useful for the energy planning community, especially when designing future electricity systems with a focus on system resilience and a more digitalised society in terms of working from home.

Keywords: energy modelling; energy planning; COVID-19; energy demand; resilience; remote-working (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C8 C80 C81 C82 C83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/6/7/76/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/6/7/76/ (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:jdataj:v:6:y:2021:i:7:p:76-:d:595425

Access Statistics for this article

Data is currently edited by Ms. Cecilia Yang

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