IN METROPOLITAN BRATISLAVA
Electricity consumption in Slovakia - applying an analytical lens to find opportunities for improved demand management
- Judging purely from the 24-hour monthly load profiles there is considerable potential for peak consumption shifting. On average, the evening demand is more than 1.3 times higher than the average base load. We can state that the average load profiles suggest that cooking, lighting and audiovisual appliances use the largest share of the extra evening power consumption. These practices are considered critical and their shifting in time is considered very unlikely. Running a less regimented and less aggregate analysis on top of the ENTSOE data, we find that certain deviations between daily data suggest the washing and drying appliances and cold appliances (refrigerators,freezers) also account for a significant share of the peak load. These practices most certainly offer a higher potential for changing their times of use.
- We can further see how summer electricity use is markedly different (lower) from electricity use in winter or mid-season. Looking closer at the daily data (but also on aggregate level) we observe pronounced variations in the timing of electricity use during the warmest month, with greater use at night (past 8PM) and lower use during the usual evening peak. The power is also used for different appliances in summer, with greater use for cold appliances, almost none for space heating, and greater use of water heaters in the evening (evening showers).
- We assume that both household composition and dwelling type have an impact on average 24-hour profiles. Predictably, larger households (both by number of members and area in square meters) tend to use more electricity. However, on average the effect is dominated by the impact of very hot or very cold outdoor temperatures: very cold / very hot temperatures coincide with greater use for heating/cooling, lighting, cooking, audiovisual and washing appliances.