Residential Electricity Consumption during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study

The pandemic scenario caused by COVID-19 is an event that reminds the energy sector to study people’s electricity consumption when staying most of their working hours at home. Residential electricity consumption can be studied to observe how energy loads and appliance usage have changed during the stay-at-home order weeks. In this current study, the authors analyzed household energy units, such as appliances and lighting systems. The data collection process was done through online surveys and publicly available data. Previous studies have successfully characterized residential electricity using surveys with stochastic models. The characterized electricity consumption data allow researchers to generate predictive models, make regressions, and understand the data. Therefore, data collection was not as costly as installing measuring instruments or smart meters. Behavioral characteristics of each participant will be presented here; additionally, the output of the analysis will be the estimated electricity consumption in kilowatt-hours (kWh). The authors examined how people evolved their loads during, before, and after the pandemic and results showed electricity consumption over time. This research can help us understand the change in electricity consumption of people who worked at home during the pandemic and generate energy indicators and costs, such as home office electricity costs in kWh/year. In addition to utilities, energy managers can benefit from clearly understanding domestic consumers during emergency scenarios such as pandemics