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Changes in the Pattern of Weekdays Electricity Real Consumption during the COVID-19 Crisis

Author

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  • Nicolae-Marius Jula

    (Department of Economical and Administrative Sciences, Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, Regina Elisabeta Blvd., 4-12, Sector 3, 030018 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Diana-Mihaela Jula

    (Department of Economic, Social and Legal Sciences, School of Advanced Studies of the Romanian Academy (SCOSAAR), National Institute for Economic Research, 050711 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Bogdan Oancea

    (Department of Economical and Administrative Sciences, Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, Regina Elisabeta Blvd., 4-12, Sector 3, 030018 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Răzvan-Mihail Papuc

    (Department of Economical and Administrative Sciences, Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, Regina Elisabeta Blvd., 4-12, Sector 3, 030018 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Dorin Jula

    (Institute for Economic Forecasting, National Institute for Economic Research, Romanian Academy, Casa Academiei, Calea 13 Septembrie nr.13, Sector 5, 050711 Bucharest, Romania
    Faculty of Financial Management, Ecological University of Bucharest, Doina Cornea Blvd., 1G, 061341 Bucharest, Romania)

Abstract

In this paper, using data from Romania, we analysed the changes in electricity consumption generated during the COVID-19 crisis, and the measures taken against the spread of the coronavirus to limit the effects of the pandemic. Using a seasonal autoregressive econometric model, we found that, beyond seasonal (weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly) effects, the average daily electricity real consumption in Romania, during the state of the emergency period (16 March 16 to 14 May 2020) decreased by −194.8 MW (about −2.9%), compared to the historical data (2006–March 2022), and this decrease is not due to the action of some random factors, and it is not a manifestation of domain-specific seasonality. The literature discusses the hypothesis that during the pandemic time, the profile of daily electricity consumption on weekdays was close to the typical Sunday profile. We tested a similar hypothesis for Romania. As a methodology, we tried to go beyond the simple interpretation of statistics and graphics (as found in most papers) and we calculated some measures of distances (the Mahalanobis distance, Manhattan distance) and similarity (coefficient of correlation, cosines coefficient) between the vectors of daily electricity real consumptions, by hourly intervals. As the time interval, we have analysed, for Romania, the electricity real consumption over the period January 2006–March 2022, by day of the week and within the day, by hourly intervals (5911 observations). We found (not very strong) evidence supporting a hypothesis that, in the pandemic crisis, the profile of electricity consumption approaches the weekend pattern only for the state of the emergency period, and we could not find the same evidence for the state of the alert period (June 2020–March 2022). The strongest closeness is to the hourly consumption pattern of Saturday. That is, for Romania, in terms of electricity consumption, “under lockdown, every day is a Sunday” (Staffell) it is rather “under lockdown, every day is (almost) a Saturday”! During the state of the alert period, consumption returned to the pre-crisis profile. Since certain behaviours generated by the pandemic have been maintained in the medium and long term (distance learning, working from home, online sales, etc.), such studies can have policy implications, especially for setting energy policy measures (e.g., in balancing load peaks).

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolae-Marius Jula & Diana-Mihaela Jula & Bogdan Oancea & Răzvan-Mihail Papuc & Dorin Jula, 2023. "Changes in the Pattern of Weekdays Electricity Real Consumption during the COVID-19 Crisis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-20, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:10:p:4169-:d:1149977
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    References listed on IDEAS

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