A Comparative Analysis of the Impacts and Resilience of the Electricity Supply Industry against COVID-19 Restrictions in the United Kingdom, Malawi, and Uganda

Francis Mujjuni, Joyce Nyuma Chivunga, Thomas Betts, Zhengyu Lin and Richard Blanchard
Additional contact information
Francis Mujjuni: Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST), Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Epinal Way, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK
Joyce Nyuma Chivunga: Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST), Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Epinal Way, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK
Thomas Betts: Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST), Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Epinal Way, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK
Zhengyu Lin: Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST), Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Epinal Way, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK
Richard Blanchard: Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST), Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Epinal Way, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 15, 1-21

Abstract: In response to COVID-19, most countries implemented mitigative and suppressive measures to stem its spread. This study analysed their impacts on the operations, investments, and policies within the electricity supply industry (ESI) for the United Kingdom, Malawi, and Uganda. It further assessed ESI’s resilience capacities ( prevention , absorption , adaptation , recovery , and transformation ) and ultimately quantified resilience using SDG 7 targets. The study observed that in 2020, the UK had 143 days of lockdowns compared to 74 for Uganda and none for Malawi. The UK’s annual demand fell by 4.8% while Uganda and Malawi’s increased by 0.5% and 2.8%, respectively. During lockdowns, the UK lost 28% of its demand compared to 5.5% for Malawi and 24% for Uganda. It took the UK 8 months to recover its demand, which was correspondingly twice and four times longer than Uganda and Malawi. The degeneration in the level of system operations in the UK did not significantly affect electricity access and reliability contrary to Uganda and Malawi, whose impacts on their development commitments could span for years. This study underscores the necessity of evaluating resilience with respect to local development commitments. Moreover, several measures were proposed to enhance resilience mainly through actions meant to ensure business continuity.

Keywords: resilience; electricity; pandemic; COVID-19; lockdown; extreme events; high impact low probability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/15/9481/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/15/9481/ (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:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:15:p:9481-:d:878685

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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