By Rachel Sharp
Electricity use shows how lockdown has changed the lifestyles of Americans with power consumption falling nearly 20 percent in the mornings as people lie in, while it rises in the evening as people stay home.
With school and work life switching to a stay-at-home model, businesses shuttering across the country, and state lockdowns mandating people stay at home except for exercise and trips to grocery stores, the daily routine of Americans has transformed.
Power market data shows people are sleeping later, having less productive afternoons, spending evenings at home, then going to bed much later at night.
But experts have warned that the fall in electricity use also shows the US is headed for an economic downturn as bad as the Great Recession.
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Power use data shows that along with a longer morning lie in, people are going to bed later too as demand doesn’t start to fall until round 9 p.m. and at midnight is still higher than it is around 8 a.m, the NYISO chart shows.
Separate data from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago shows that, overall across the US, electricity consumption was down 6 percent on April 5 compared to December 2019.