End of Daylight Saving - Impact on electricity consumption
Release Date: 26 March 2007
With Daylight Saving finishing last weekend Western Power reported no significant increase or decrease in electricity consumption during the three-month trial.
Western Power’s General Manager System Management, Mr Ken Brown said that the daily afternoon peak occurred slightly later in the day and there was a minor increase in electricity use in the morning as early risers turned on lights.
“Energy consumption is significantly influenced by a number of variables including the number of very hot days and nights experienced in a summer, the number of days with high humidity levels, the frequency of strong afternoon sea breezes and economic growth which influences the number of new connections made to the network.
“The new record in energy consumption that was set in March this year was expected because of the amount of growth experienced in the WA economy.
“New consumption records are usually set each year as WA’s population grows and more people connect to the network.
“Western Power connected approximately 30,000 new businesses and residential properties to the network last year, which inevitably caused an increase in electricity consumption.
“The number of air conditioning units, which are high-energy use appliances, installed in WA has grown from 45% in 1999 to over 71% in 2006.
“For these reasons it is not possible to provide a definitive figure on the impact of Daylight Saving though it is considered to have caused a minor increase in energy use,” Mr Brown said.
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