Impact of COVID19 lockdown on household energy consumption on two Indian cities: Poster abstract

COVID-19 has severely impacted millions of lives around the world. In this note, we explore the impact of COVID-19 on the electricity consumption of 93 households across two tier-2 cities in India. Given the work from home restrictions, we would expect electricity consumption to increase as people spend more time at home. Contrary to the expectations, we found that electricity consumption decreased during the lockdown as compared to previous years. On further follow-up with households, we found several reasons for decreased usage: i) inability to get air conditioners serviced due to movement restriction, ii) advisories on minimising AC usage, and iii) reducing energy to compensate for reduced income.