Abstract
After the onset of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, a number of studies reported on possible changes in electricity consumption trends. The overall theme of these reports was that “electricity use has decreased during the pandemic, but the power grid is still reliable”—mostly due to reduced economic activity. In this paper, we analyze electricity data until the end of May 2020, examining both electricity demand and variables that can indicate stress on the power grid. We limit this study to three states in the U.S. California, Florida and New York. The results indicate that the effect of the pandemic on electricity demand is not a simple reduction, and there are noticeable differences among regions analyzed. The variables that can indicate stress on the grid (e.g., daily peak and trough of the hourly demand, demand ramp rate, demand forecast error, and net electricity interchange) also conveyed mixed messages: some indicate an increase in stress, some indicate a decrease, and some do not indicate any clear difference. A positive message is that some of the changes that were observed around the time stay-at-home orders were issued appeared to revert back by May 2020. A key challenge in ascribing any observed change to the pandemic is correcting for weather as it can be challenging to accurately define it for large geographic regions. We provide a weather-correction method, apply it to a small city-wide area in North Central Florida, and discuss the implications of the estimated changes in demand. The results indicate that a 10% (95% CI [2%, 18%]) increase in electricity demand is likely to have occurred due to COVID-19 for the city analyzed.
Highlights
Reliable electricity supply is a fundamental service for a functioning society
Understanding demand changes is important to balancing authorities that are in charge of maintaining reliable operation of the power grid
CONTROLLING FOR WEATHER Methods for weather correcting energy/electricity demand data are typically based on cooling degree day and heating degree day
Summary
Reliable electricity supply is a fundamental service for a functioning society. Since a large part of the workforce is working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, uninterrupted electricity supply has become even more important. Barooah: Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the U.S Electricity Demand and Supply: An Early View From Data pandemic [12], [17]. Some potential issues such as the challenges of refueling nuclear power plants are being worked out. We analyze data from U.S Energy Information Administration (EIA) until the end of May 2020 to examine trends in electricity demand and indicators of stress on the power grid. In the last section of the paper, we perform weather correction of electricity demand from a small balancing authority in Florida for which weather can be defined clearly In this particular area, weather corrected demand shows an increase due to the pandemic. All the analysis were conducted in Python computer language [18] primarily using pandas, numpy and sci-kit learn packages [3], [11], [14] for data processing and analysis, and matplotlib and seaborn packages [9], [19] for plots
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
