Power demand, pollution show steep decline

Manka Behl | TNN | Updated: Apr 14, 2020, 15:24 IST

Nagpur: Thanks to corona lockdown that brought most economic activities to a grinding halt, power consumption in the country has fallen by 18.72% (as on April 4). The emissions of particulate matter during this period have seen a nearly 7% decline.
This was revealed in the data tracker developed by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). The tracker shows the impact of Covid-19 on electricity consumption and particulate pollution in countries like India, China, and the United States.
The researchers compared the decline with the average gross electricity consumption in the country in 2018-19 which was 1181 kilowatt hour (kwh) per capita. The particulate emissions were compared to the levels of December 2019.
The tracker shows that on the first day of the lockdown (March 25), electricity consumption in the country saw a decline of nearly 21%. It further fell nearly 24% the next day and 25% on the third day. Till April 6, the fall kept on swaying between 18-22%. “Historically, electricity consumption has proven to be a reliable, early indicator of broader economic trends. With the restrictions, roads and airports are nearly empty, shops and restaurants closed, and industrial activities are largely at a halt leading to reduction in usage of power,” stated a press release by EPIC.
A comparison of the data for India with other countries like USA shows the fall in the county has been sharper, indicating the lockdown here was much stricter and better implemented compared to other nations.
To assess the fall in urban particulate matter, EPIC researchers assembled daily PM 2.5 data from OpenAQ, a website which aggregates particulate matter readings from monitoring stations around the world. On the first day of the lockdown, the PM levels dropped 27.3%. With a significant drop in vehicular movement and shutdown of some industries, the levels saw a further fall of 32 – 35% in the coming week.
Highlighting the importance of the tracker, EPIC stated: “The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments around the world to impose tough restrictions on daily life to prevent the spread of the virus. In this environment, real-time information about economic activity is at a premium, but often hard to acquire. This dynamic tracker provides insights into the severity of the economic downturn and the timing of recoveries.”
Infographics:
- EPIC develops a tracker to show impact of lockdown on power consumption and particulate pollution
- In India, energy consumption and pollution both saw significant falls
- Power consumption in India falls by 18.72%
- Restrictions on commercial activities, vehicular movements etc reason behind the decline
- The two present real-time information about economic downturn