Assessing the Impact of Lockdown Due to COVID-19 on the Electricity Consumption of a Housing Development in the UK

In March 2020, the United Kingdom (UK) government ruled that householders must stay home as a response to the COVID-19 outbreak to help flatten the curve of the epidemic and reduce the exponential growth of the virus. Commercial activities, workplaces and schools were obliged to temporarily close in compliance with the government rules. This first and most restrictive lockdown took place from late March to early May 2020 when occupants had to stay in their homes except for very restricted essential activities. Two other lockdowns were introduced in November 2020 and January 2021, alongside with a range of restrictive measures during 2020. This offered an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the impact of a prolonged period of occupancy on household electricity consumption. In this work, the authors compared electricity consumption data collected from 21 energy-efficient houses in Nottingham, UK, during these lockdown periods to the same period in the previous year. The findings indicated that the monthly electricity consumption in April 2020, during the strictest lockdown, increased approximately 7% in comparison to the same period in 2019. Hourly average electrical power demand profile during this lockdown showed earlier and longer peaks in the evenings with the emergence of a new midday peak in comparison to typical daily peaks prior to lockdown. Total electricity consumption increased by 17% in 2020-2021, when restrictive measures were in place.