March through December 2020
As previously discussed in the first of this blog series on April 13, 2020, as lockdown policies are enacted to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, the Itron Forecasting Team is leveraging publicly available hourly load data for most North American Independent System Operators (ISOs) and a select set of European countries to build a picture of the load impacts by region. To assess the load impact of COVID-19 mitigation strategies, actual loads when many of these policies began are compared to baseline loads without COVID-19 policy impacts.
Across Europe and North America, the biggest estimated load reductions occurred in April with an estimated reduction in average daily load between -12.3% and -7.2%. In both Europe and North America, December loads ran lower than expected although the impact more than likely reflects a net load reduction associated with the winter holiday season.
For a detailed summary of the estimated load impacts, go to the forecasting website to download the latest COVID-19 Load Impact memo.
The Itron Forecasting Team will continue to post updated summary blogs and corresponding memos on these trends.
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