Working in the home office, cooking on your own stove, teaching via laptop: the corona pandemic was felt by the customers of the Holzkirchen municipal utilities on their electricity and water bills.
What private customers paid more, the companies saved.
Holzkirchen
- The reading devices of the Holzkirchen community works beeped wildly like never before when they recently recorded the energy consumption of the community citizens. The reason for their nervousness: Corona. "We programmed the devices for deviations," says Albert Götz, managing director of the municipal utilities. "If a consumption value is noticeably different from the previous year's value when you read it, there is an automatic alarm."
The system is intended to reveal reading errors quickly or as an early warning system for the municipal utilities that there could be a leak somewhere.
The effects of the pandemic overwhelmed the brave reading devices.
The electricity and water consumption in the market town did somersaults in the first Corona year, the beeping never stopped.
“We had to set the deviation tolerance much more coarsely in between,” says Götz.
Some customers needed 30 percent more electricity
The rash in private households usually went up, and the additional payments were often steep, especially when it came to electricity consumption.
"Some users were amazed at how clearly you feel the home office with your electricity bill."
In addition, many community citizens turned on the stove much more often.
“The catering was canceled for a few weeks, you stayed at home and cooked more yourself again,” analyzes Götz.
And then the computer or the TV would start up to watch movies or try out the latest video game.
Anyone who had students at home was dependent on electricity to at least maintain digital contact with the schools.
Götz knows of some customers who tapped up to 30 percent more electricity in the Corona year 2020.
On average, the consumption of around 8,000 private households rose by a good five percent.
Overall, however, the municipal utilities no longer sold electricity.
"Easy to explain," says Götz, "what people used more in their own four walls, they used less at work."
Private water consumption rose by ten percent
This was almost balanced with electricity, while the pendulum swung more clearly when it came to water consumption. According to Götz, private households turned on the taps so frequently that total consumption rose by ten percent. "Some bought small pools in the summer of 2020," says Götz, "these are quantities that quickly affect annual consumption."
Water was not only in demand in the garden on hot summer days: more cooking at home also means more washing dishes, more home office means more visits to the toilet at home. And according to Götz, the counterpart of water consumption was also evident from commercial customers: toilets and kitchens in many offices stayed dry for weeks, employees sat in front of their laptops at home - and went to the bathroom at home. The result: companies needed significantly less water in the Corona year 2020. The municipal utilities boss estimates the decline here at up to 15 percent.