By Active Building Centre, Academic Research Team
The measures to control the spread of COVID-19 are unparalleled, and this is already having an effect on Britain’s energy system.
Change in demand
There have been massive short-term changes in the past: for instance the temporary imposition of a three-day week in the 1970s may have had an even greater overall effect, but this was due to industrial action in the coal sector affecting the supply of energy.
This time, the disruption is on the demand side – the energy is still available, but the demand for it has reduced.
We are a group of academics monitoring the situation to understand how national energy demand is affected by changes in day-to-day routines.
We should point out that the energy system is very resilient, and there are well developed contingency plans to keep the energy flowing. But the response to coronavirus is affecting things in various other ways…
Read the article by our Active Building Centre team published on The Conversation: We analysed electricity demand and found coronavirus has turned weekdays into weekends.