Electricity Data May Reveal How Coronavirus Lockdowns Affect Our Daily Routine

Life in lockdown means getting up late, staying up till midnight and slacking off in the afternoons. That’s what power market data show in Europe in the places where restrictions on activity have led to a widespread shift in daily routines of hundreds of millions of people. Read more: How to Stay Physically and Mentally Healthy While COVID-19 Has You Stuck at Home It’s a similar story wherever lockdowns bite. In New York, electricity use has fallen as much as 18% from normal times at 8 a.m. Tokyo and three nearby prefectures had a 5% drop in power use during weekdays after Japan declared a state of emergency on April 7, according to TESLA, an energy forecaster. Italy’s experience shows the trend most clearly since the curbs started there on March 5, before any other European country. Data from the grid operator Terna SpA gives a taste of what other places are also now starting to report. With no commute to the office people can sleep longer. Normally, electricity demand began to pick up between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Now in Germany, its clear coffee machines don’t go on until between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., said Simon Rathjen, founder of the trading company MFT Energy A/S. Germany, France and Italy — which between them make up almost two thirds of the euro-zone economy — all have furlough measures that allow workers to receive a salary while temporarily suspended from their jobs. The U.K. also has a support package. Many of these workers will be get...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 News Desk wire Source Type: news