Effect of weather on monthly electricity consumption in three coastal cities in West Africa

Abstract

In several regions worldwide, demand for electricity can be highly dependent on weather conditions. This study investigates the relationships between weather and electricity consumption in three West African cities. Monthly electricity consumption datasets for the cities of Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Cotonou (Benin) and Lomé (Togo) for the 1990–2015, 2000–2015 and 2008–2014 periods respectively were collected from national electricity companies, and meteorological data of the synoptic stations were used to compute Cooling Degree-Days in the three cities. The Cooling Degree-Days indices were estimated using air temperature and two temperature indices (the Humidex and the Heat Index). For the statistical analysis, classical multiplicative decomposition was applied to consumption data for subperiods for which consumption was considered to show relatively homogeneous evolutionary behavior (Abidjan and Lomé from 2011 to 2014 and Cotonou from 2009 to 2014). Regardless of the temperature indices considered in the three cities, the Cooling Degree-Days indices are well correlated with the seasonal variability of power consumption and particularly, the peak consumption observed in March and the lower consumption in August. Slightly better correlations are obtained for Cotonou and Abidjan when the heat index (combining both temperature and relative humidity) are used to calculate the Cooling Degree-Days.