Effect of COVID-19 lockdown on residential grid electricity and decentralised solar energy consumption in the UK Homes

Description

The lockdowns induced by the COVID-19 pandemic has been forcing people to work and school from home. This study aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on residential grid electricity and decentralised solar energy consumption in 100 houses from southwestern UK homes with Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). We analysed highly granular (1-minutely) grid electricity and decentralised solar energy consumption data for April-August 2020 compared to the same months in 2019 for the same houses for the study. Our study showed statistically significant differences during and after the lockdown period in energy demand, where minutely average electricity demand was 1.4-10% lower during April-August 2020 than in 2019. Our analysis showed that the grid electricity consumption in homes reduced 24-25%, whereas the self-consumption from solar PVs increased 7-8% during the lockdown (April and May 2020) as compared to 2019, predominantly in the morning and afternoon, which might be due to working and schooling from homes during the lockdown.

Period	15 Oct 2021
Event title	38th International Conference of CIB W78
Event type	Conference
Location	Luxembourg, LuxembourgShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International