Impact of COVID-19 on the energy consumption of commercial buildings: A case study in Singapore

Numerous studies have demonstrated that commercial activities have significantly reduced during COVID-19, while there are few studies disclosing the consequent impacts on the energy consumption of commercial buildings. This study explores the changes in energy consumption of different types of commercial buildings in Singapore under the impact of the pandemic, using commercial building energy performance data from 2017 to 2020 (n=540). The sampled buildings include 93 hotel buildings, 303 office buildings, 106 retail buildings, and 38 mixed developments. The analysis mainly used linear regression and paired sample t-test. The results showed that relative to 2019, the mean energy use intensity (EUI) of sampled commercial buildings decreased by 56.77 kWh/m² in the pandemic year (2020), a plunge of 19.9%. The extent to which the EUI of each type of commercial building is affected by the pandemic is found as: mixed development>retail>office>hotel. The study also identified the factors that significantly influenced the EUI of commercial buildings before and during the pandemic. The results of the study complement existing knowledge about the factors influencing energy consumption in commercial buildings by considering the impact of the pandemic and furthermore contribute to the improvement of energy management in commercial buildings by providing directions for building energy efficiency approaches.