Covid-19 and electricity demand: focus on Milan and Brescia distribution grids

Abstract

In Italy, the government countermeasures against Covid-19 have had a large impact on citizens, companies and industries, affecting the electric energy consumption too. Lombardy is surely the main affected region in terms of Covid-19 cases and slow-down of production activities of its cities. For two of them, Brescia and Milan, the impact on the electric distribution is analysed keeping the entry into force of the government actions as relevant time references. The different response to the emergency of the two cities points out the prevalent services activities of Milan and the industrial character of Brescia. Moreover, for Brescia it is studied the variation of electric demand and its daily load profile for specific feeders that are representative of a consumer category. This analysis underlines the need of the Distribution System Operators to build an infrastructure able to manage, through a data driven approach (Big Data, machine learning), the unexpected variation of daily profiles in order to make the electric grid more resilient.