The Lockdown and Smart Working Effects on Electric Energy Consumption: The Analysis for a Group of Employees

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of smart working: the working activity carried out also outside the office and not only at the office. This has interesting consequences also on the energy sector, since it can decrease commuting consumption and shifts electric consumption from the tertiary to domestic sector. In this work the electric consumption performance of a (representative) group of 10 employees, working with classical office equipment, has been investigated. The variation of the electric load curves has been analyzed in the office and at home before, during and after the 2020 lockdown restrictions introduced by the Italian government. Consumption changes, with respect to the previous year, have been analyzed and discussed. The variations of the electric load curves affect, in case of adoption of PV (photovoltaic) panels, PV self-sufficiency and PV self-consumption. In the case considered, while the former does not vary significantly (with values of about 40-50%), the latter decreases, in case of the office building, from 44% to 24% and it increases, in case of households, from 32% to 50%. These consequences have to be taken into account when programming new PV plant installations.