A Distribution Network during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

During an extraordinary event, like the COVID19 pandemic, very rapid changes in consumption profiles and customers behaviors were recorded. This paper investigates the impact of the lockdown on load and production in the distribution system of Terni. From a DSO point of view, no relevant issues were encountered to be faced. The distributed power generation from renewable resources did not affect relevant issues, maintaining the typical annual generation profiles. A domestic consumption increase was replaced by more relevant decrease of industrial processes and commercial activities absorptions. More than 25,000 domestic users increased their consumptions in April 2020 and the overall consumption of domestic customers in March was 1,05 times higher than the 2015 respectively consumption. The power flows at primary substations reveal a relevant electric demand reduction for each point of connection with the high voltage transmission system; especially bar 1 and 2 of the most relevant Terni primary substation, recorded a 15.3% decrease with respect to March 2019, and a 24.25% decrease with respect to April 2019.