Impact of people's behavior on the energy sustainability of the residential sector in emergency situations caused by COVID-19

Humanity is currently confronted with a new, unknown, highly contagious virus, where social isolation and increased personal hygiene seem to be the main means in preventing its spread. The world economy is very threatened by the new situation, which has not bypassed the energy sector either. The mortality rate is relatively high, people are not leaving their homes, which is directly reflected in the increase of the energy consumption in the residential sector. The same is valid for water consumption. For a household located in Kragujevac (Central Serbia), 4 simulation scenarios were analyzed (S1 – reference case, S2 – mild protection measures, S3 – semi-quarantine measures, S4 – complete quarantine) to assess the link between people's behavior (on the one hand) and the consumption of natural gas, electricity and water (on the other hand), in the residential sector, in unforeseen circumstances, such as the COVID-19 virus pandemic. The analysis was conducted numerically for the month of March 2020, using EnergyPlus software packages. In defining the above scenarios, a one-minute time step schedule of people's behavior was used, taking into account the number of family members in the household, their age, occupation, lifestyle, habits (all in accordance with cultural and socio-economic circumstances), as well as the measures taken by the Government of the Republic of Serbia to fight the pandemic. Also, an analysis of energy consumption at the level of the city of Kragujevac for the past three years was made, based on data obtained from public companies – distributors (thermal energy, natural gas, electricity, water). In this paper, an analysis of air quality for the same time period was conducted, which is closely related to energy consumption and limited population movement. The simulatinos show that the consumption of natural gas can increase by 21.26% (S2), electricity by 58.39% (S4), and the consumption of water from the city water supply network by 25.45% (S3) compared to the reference case (S1). On the other hand, based on the invoice for payment of services to distributors, the actual energy consumption that was made on the analyzed house during the month of March 2020 was: natural gas (260.36 Sm(3)), electricity (1418 kWh), and water (22.5 m(3)). The conducted economic analysis showed that the largest funds at the level of the entire facility were allocated in S3 (27.33% more than in S1), and that the actual costs were 15.09% higher than in S1, and 16.41% lower than in S2.