As in the second lockdown, the influence of the corona measures on the electricity load was also lower in the third.
Electricity consumption in Austria has recently been dampened more by the cold winter weather than by the third corona lockdown. This results from comparisons made by the transmission system operator APG with the shutdown of the economy in spring and autumn. As in the second lockdown, the influence of the corona measures on the electricity load was also lower in the third.
In mid-February, electricity consumption of minus two percent or 1,361 gigawatt hours (GWh) was only slightly below the average from 2017 to 2019 (1,393 GWh). “This shows that the cold of the past few weeks is the main influencing factor on the development of the electricity load,” said the APA on Thursday.
The low temperatures in the first half of February and the associated higher energy demand, for example through heating, would have contributed significantly to the increase in electricity consumption compared to the previous months in Austria, according to the Austrian Power Grid (APG) in a broadcast. The current opening steps from the third lockdown would have little effect on power consumption.
The picture of stabilization or temperature dependency of electricity consumption at a slightly low level is similar in Europe. Despite the ongoing lockdown in the previous week (week 6), electricity consumption in Germany was exactly at the average level of the years before the pandemic.
Austria was an electricity importing country in January. According to APG, the peak value was 84 GWh on January 11, with one GWh being the lowest import of the month at the end of January. The reason for the increased need for imports is the lower generation of electricity from renewables in the winter months. The difference between consumption and renewable generation must be balanced out with storage power plants, thermal power generation and imports, according to APG. In January, APG had to resort to redispatch measures on 22 days due to a lack of network capacity.
