Impact of COVID-19 on Urban Energy Consumption of Commercial Tourism City

Abstract

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide. To alleviate this spread, various blockade policies have been implemented in many areas. This has led to a sluggish demand in the world's major economies, sharp drop in the trade index, and negative growth in energy consumption. To formulate a better epidemic prevention policy for urban energy consumption of commercial tourism cities, this study summarizes the major statistics of energy supply and demand before and during the epidemic period based on actual data. The characteristics of energy consumption in different sectors, including hotels, transportation, tourism culture, and public utilities, are then analyzed in detail. Finally, the energy consumption features of commercial tourism cities represented by Macao are compared to those of other typical countries (e.g., Italy, United States, Japan, and Brazil). These analyses demonstrate the impact of COVID-19 on the energy consumption in commercial tourism cities, which provides insights for the government or energy providers to formulate policies to adapt to this pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Commercial tourism city; Energy management; Energy structure characteristic; Urban energy consumption.

Fig. 1

Power consumption trend in Macao

Fig. 2

Overall energy consumption characteristics of natural gas

Fig. 3

The consumption characteristic of natural gas used for urban gas supply

Fig. 4

The kernel density estimation and CFs of the commercial loads

Fig. 5

Discharge of power plant waste

Fig. 6

Macao's electricity costs and investment

Fig. 7

The overall electricity sales trend in Macao

Fig. 8

Daily electricity consumption of different sectors during the first 5 months of 2019 and 2020

Fig. 9

Distribution of power consumption (15 minutes) of different sectors during the first 5 months of 2019 and 2020

Fig. 10

Hourly average electricity consumption of different sectors, from 27^th Jan to 9^th Feb in 2019 and 2020

Fig. 11

Daily electricity consumption distribution of different sectors, from 27^th Jan to 9^th Feb in 2019 and 2020

Fig. 12

Energy consumption during epidemic in typical countries

Fig. 13

Energy structure of typical countries