In the first months of the corona crisis, the Dutch consumed much less electricity than normal, according to half-yearly figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday (CBS). Electricity consumption in the second quarter was 24.7 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) more than 7 percent lower than last year and at a level not seen since 2001.
According to Statistics Netherlands, the decline coincides with the reduced economic activity as a result of the lockdown. The lockdown was announced in mid-March, resulting in fewer flights, relatively empty highways, stores closed and offices vacant. Grid operator TenneT and energy supplier Eneco already said against it at the end of July NU.nl that power consumption had fallen sharply as a result.
The figures for the first quarter show that the decrease in consumption is due to the corona crisis: the Dutch still used almost as much electricity in the first three months of 2020 as last year.
Statistics Netherlands also announces that the amount of renewable energy produced has risen sharply. Production rose 10.6 billion kWh in the first half of 2019 to 14.8 billion kWh in the first half of 2020, an increase of 39 percent.
According to Statistics Netherlands, this is mainly due to the favorable weather conditions, such as the countless sunny days in the spring and the stormy days in the winter. More solar panels were also put into use.
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