JUE Insight: Powering work from home

This paper documents a shift in energy consumption toward residential usage during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Focusing on electricity, I find a 7.9% increase in residential consumption, and a 6.9% and 8.0% reduction in commercial and industrial usage, respectively, from a monthly panel of electric utilities. Natural gas consumption also shifted toward residential use, so that aggregate electricity and gas expenditure only fell by 1% on net during a period in which GDP fell by 5%. Hourly smart meter data from Texas reveal how daily routines changed during the pandemic, with residential electricity usage during weekdays closely resembling those of weekends. In total, residential energy expenditures were an estimated $13B higher during Q2-Q4 2020, with the largest increases occurring in areas with a greater propensity to work from home. I find that transportation fuel consumption declined about 16%, so that total energy consumption in the U.S. economy fell by 8%.