Analysts noted the residential sector is sensitive to temperature changes and tends to use more electricity over the summer period than the commercial and industrial sectors.
Across all sectors, April U.S. electricity sales declined 4% year-on-year, largely due to lockdown measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
Starting with California on March 19, states began to issue stay-at-home orders in response to the pandemic which made most office workers transition to stay home and work from there, pushing up residential gas and electricity demand.
Commercial electricity demand, in contrast, fell by more than 10% during the lockdown period and industrial electricity demand was 9% lower. Lockdowns had a severe impact on energy-intensive industries and manufacturing whose demand fell to about 2.6 million MWh/day, down from usually about 3.4 million MWh/day.
Keeping a close watch on electricity use during the health crisis, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) is monitoring sectoral demand in its Hourly Electric Grid Monitor.
Electricity use in the United States is typically lowest in the spring and fall months and generally increases as temperatures either become much colder or much warmer than about 55 degrees to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. In each of the past 10 years, either April or October was the month with the lowest electricity demand.