Covid-19 lockdown: impacts on GB electricity demand and CO2 emissions
Covid-19 lockdown: impacts on GB electricity demand and CO2 emissions
In early 2020 a wide range of social and economic restrictions were implemented in most countries in response to the global coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19). This paper uses national electricity generation data to examine the extent to which overall British electricity consumption deviated from ‘normal’ consumption patterns during the UK’s spring lockdown period, and how the combination of consumption reduction and variation in carbon intensity affected greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) associated with electricity consumption. The paper shows that ongoing trends in the reduction of electricity demand and generation carbon intensity mean that lower year-on-year demand and lower emissions would have been expected even in the absence of Covid-19. Controlling for this, the paper estimates lockdown-driven below-trend electricity reductions of up to 20% in the morning peak period, 11% in the daytime and 9% in the evening peak period in April, declining to 6%, 4% and 4%, respectively, by June. These correspond to marked reductions in morning (06:00–08:00 hours) and daytime demand during all restriction periods studied, but relatively smaller reductions in evening demand, and some evidence of a relative increase on Friday and Saturday evenings.
134-149
Anderson, Ben
01e98bbd-b402-48b0-b83e-142341a39b2d
James, Patrick
da0be14a-aa63-46a7-8646-a37f9a02a71b
10 February 2021
Anderson, Ben
01e98bbd-b402-48b0-b83e-142341a39b2d
James, Patrick
da0be14a-aa63-46a7-8646-a37f9a02a71b
Anderson, Ben and James, Patrick
(2021)
Covid-19 lockdown: impacts on GB electricity demand and CO2 emissions.
Buildings and Cities, 2 (1), .
(doi:10.5334/bc.77).
Abstract
In early 2020 a wide range of social and economic restrictions were implemented in most countries in response to the global coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19). This paper uses national electricity generation data to examine the extent to which overall British electricity consumption deviated from ‘normal’ consumption patterns during the UK’s spring lockdown period, and how the combination of consumption reduction and variation in carbon intensity affected greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) associated with electricity consumption. The paper shows that ongoing trends in the reduction of electricity demand and generation carbon intensity mean that lower year-on-year demand and lower emissions would have been expected even in the absence of Covid-19. Controlling for this, the paper estimates lockdown-driven below-trend electricity reductions of up to 20% in the morning peak period, 11% in the daytime and 9% in the evening peak period in April, declining to 6%, 4% and 4%, respectively, by June. These correspond to marked reductions in morning (06:00–08:00 hours) and daytime demand during all restriction periods studied, but relatively smaller reductions in evening demand, and some evidence of a relative increase on Friday and Saturday evenings.
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Accepted/In Press date: 19 January 2021
Published date: 10 February 2021
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 447015
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/447015
ISSN: 2632-6655
PURE UUID: dbd2b7a3-910e-4b85-9373-ec2352979ee0
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Date deposited: 01 Mar 2021 17:34
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:39
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