Lockdown sparks energy use change
COMMERCIAL energy use has slumped during lockdown – but residential consumption has soared.
Pinergy, the smart energy provider delivering clean electricity, has shared summary data insights for how Irish homes and businesses used energy throughout 2020.
The statistics from this past year show the effects that a country going into lockdown has had on energy usage and changing consumption patterns throughout homes and in businesses.
With more people working from home and businesses temporarily closing, the year-on-year changes are significant and highly informative of how the country has adapted to new ways of life forced on the country by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In particular, the lockdowns in Spring and November have had very similar impacts on energy usage, with an increase of electricity demand in family
homes of between 4% and 14% from the previous year. The impacts of working from home are particularly evident amongst young professionals (up 14%) and suburban families (up 11%) where there has been increasing usage even when restrictions were eased throughout 2020.
Unsurprisingly, homes of young renters and student accommodations in urban centres saw usage decreases
during 2020 of between 10% and 20% as residents left cities to return to their family homes.
Pinergy has also seen daily patterns of energy consumption change during 2020 as some people are starting their day later and cooking main meals earlier in the day than 2019.
Businesses throughout Ireland saw a significant decrease in demand for energy during the Spring lockdown.
This was not as evident in the November lockdown as restrictions were not as severe and businesses had adapted to new realities.
In particular, demand for energy from retail businesses has been in line with 2019 levels throughout 2020 with a decrease year-on-year during the Spring lockdown of 24% and a small peak during the November lockdown with a 13% increase year-on-year.
Hospitality businesses on the other hand have had greatly reduced demand during 2020 as many have not been able to provide their full range of services.
These businesses have reduced their demand on energy by between 20% and 50% year-on-year at different stages during 2020.
Offices and real estate have seen decreases in energy demand of more than 20% at various stages during 2020 with the construction sector down 26% from 2019.