Differential Impact of COVID-19 on the Energy Consumption of Residential and Business Sectors

As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, some patterns of energy consump-tion changed in the residential and non-residential sectors. This paper uses data from a local utility company in Florida to quantify the heterogeneous impacts of the pandemic on electricity and natural gas consumption across households from different income levels and across essential and non-essential businesses. We found significant increases in the average residential electricity consumption during the lockdown and subsequent reopening phases, which translate into high-er cost for households. We found that natural gas consumption dropped abruptly in the business sector and also important differences between the electricity con-sumption of essential and non-essential businesses, with the former consuming more and the latter less electricity.