Electricity Demand
It comes as no surprise that the demand in electricity in the past several months has been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
This can be largely attributed to the stringent government response against the pandemic, particularly the lockdowns across many countries worldwide.
As revealed by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the demand in electricity was quick to drop following the confinement measures.
In China, which was the first to call for a lockdown, the demand has been significantly lower in the first two months of the year as compared to their levels in 2019.
The EU countries, including Italy, Germany, France, Spain, and Great Britain, also experienced a dramatic decline in demand in the first semester of 2020 but regained slightly on the 3rd quarter.
On the contrary, Asian countries such as the Philippines, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and India bounced back significantly on the 2nd quarter of the year despite the draconian lockdown in major cities.
Thankfully, the electricity demand eventually recovered after measures were eased. This began as early as April in Germany and Italy.
The following month, China also began to show signs of recovery and even recorded a 4% increase in demand than in 2019.
Although the same cannot be said true for the EU countries as their electricity demand remained below their 2019 levels, they have also recorded a significant increase in demand after softening their lockdown measures.
India, on the other hand, have been recovering well since May, marking levels higher than it did last year.
When it comes to the share of renewables in the electricity mix since the pandemic has begun, the United States reported that natural gas has been its main source since March, with renewables taking only second place.
India, on the other hand, has been decreasing the share of coal and seasonally increasing renewables in the electricity mix while China recorded a high share in renewables since the release of lockdown measures.
This can be attributed to the ramping up of the hydro electricity generation in the country and the opening of a new dam.
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