Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Energy Use at the University of Almeria (Spain)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused chaos in many sectors and industries. In the energy sector, the demand has fallen drastically during the first quarter of 2020. The University of Almeria campus also declined the energy consumption in 2020, and through this study, we aimed to measure the impact of closing the campus on the energy use of its different facilities. We built our analysis based upon the dataset collected during the year 2020 and previous years; the patterns evolution through time allowed us to better understand the energy performance of each facility during this exceptional year. We rearranged the university buildings into categories, and all the categories reduced their electricity consumption share in comparison with the previous year of 2019. Furthermore, the portfolio of categories presented a wide range of ratios that varied from 56% to 98%, the library category was found to be the most influenced, and the research category was found to be the least influenced. This opened questions like why some facilities were influenced more than others? What can we do to reduce the energy use even more when the facilities are closed? The university buildings presented diverse structures that revealed differences in energy performance, which explained why the impact of such an event (COVID-19 pandemic) is not necessarily relevant to have equivalent variations. Nevertheless, some management deficiencies were detected, and some energy savings measures were proposed to achieve a minimum waste of energy.

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“…The reduction of electrical energy has also recently been studied in extracurricular spaces, for example, a research was carried out in university dormitories in the southern United States of America [34], which showed savings from confinement by COVID-19 of 40% in total electricity demand. Likewise, in a particular way, the reduction in electrical energy consumption could be identified in the buildings and laboratories of some universities in Europe, with significant levels of decrease, as has been reported in some studies [25,35]. This translates into reduced environmental impact [36][37][38] and energy costs.…”

“…The SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic permeated these local economies and caused serious effects on the inhabitants where the universities are located, on the students who work to obtain income and pay their university expenses, and the institutions themselves due to changes in the patterns of functionality and economic sustainability. A particular change generated during the closure of these institutions was related to the consumption of electrical energy [24][25][26], which has been constant in all universities in the world, and European universities had reductions from 10% up to 40% [25]. It is estimated that in the first quarter of 2020, there was a saving of 3.8% in global energy demand compared to in the same quarter of 2019, as a consequence of the reduction in global economic activity and mobility [27][28][29], including the impact of the closure of higher education institutions.…”

“…It should be noted that university campuses use energy differently compared to residential buildings, and their consumption pattern is more complicated since it depends on many factors such as the physical characteristics of the facilities, the occupancy rate, heating, ventilation and air cooling according to the climate where the property is located, interior and exterior lighting, the number of computers, laboratory materials, charging sockets, and class periods throughout the year [25,30].…”

“…Additionally, in some higher education institutions, the decrease in consumption has made it possible to estimate the reduction of the carbon footprint due to the decrease in mobility, the decrease in the generation of waste and the low energy consumption after the closure of the university buildings, which decreased by more than 10% in some places in America, Europe and Asia [32,33], as well as the decrease in the use of air conditioning systems as in the United Kingdom for example at the University of Bournemouth [26], whose carbon footprint was reduced by approximately 30%. On the other hand, in particular cases, such as the University of Almeria in Spain, energy consumption was reduced by 1.3 million kWh in 2020, with the largest decrease in library buildings and the smallest decrease in research buildings [25]. The reduction of electrical energy has also recently been studied in extracurricular spaces, for example, a research was carried out in university dormitories in the southern United States of America [34], which showed savings from confinement by COVID-19 of 40% in total electricity demand.…”

The Significance of Occupants’ Interaction with Their Environment on Reducing Cooling Loads and Dermatological Distresses in East Mediterranean Climates

“…The way in which occupants deal with energy can have a considerable influence on the energy consumption rate in the building [2][3][4][5]. Some research has attributed the variation between predicted energy and actual energy use to how occupants approach the issue of energy use [6][7][8][9]. Considering occupant behaviour as a stochastic rather than a deterministic system allows it to be controlled and therefore exploited effectively [9].…”