Daylight saving time is back. In the night between Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 March the hands will have to move forward, from 2.00 to 3.00. You will therefore sleep an hour less. For many Italians, the arrival of summer time means leaving the office with the sun still high, being able to enjoy an extra hour of light. Characteristics that are not only good for mood, but also affect consumption. Indeed, according to Terna's calculations, thanks to summer time we will consume 500 million kilowatt hours less electricity, a quantity corresponding to the average annual needs of around 200 thousand families.
Translated into money, considering that a kilowatt hour costs the average domestic customer about 20 euro cents before taxes, the company that manages the national electricity grid calculates a saving of around 100 million euros. Not only that, summer time also brings benefits from an environmental point of view, given that it is estimated that 250 tons of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere are reduced.
“In the spring-summer period, the months that show the greatest energy savings”, explains Terna, “are April and October which together, with around 350 million kilowatt hours, represent two thirds of the total savings. Moving the hands forward by one hour delays the use of artificial light at a time when work activities are still in full swing. In the summer months, from June to August, the "delay" effect in turning on the light bulbs occurs in the evening hours, when work activities are mostly finished, and records less evident results in terms of electricity savings".
Thanks to these changes, from 2004 to 2018 Italian families saved approx 1,5 billion euros and 9,1 billion kilowatt hours. Winter time will return in the night between 26 and 27 October 2019. Terna also analyzed the possible repercussions of the European Parliament's decision to abolish the changeover from standard time to summer time starting from 2021, by carrying out a simulation on the effect “of the different time regimes (ie summer time all year round or winter time all year round).
The study underlines how maintaining summer time throughout the year "guarantees the maximum benefit in terms of energy savings: the approximately 500 million kilowatt hours that are already saved on average with the summer time system currently in place (i.e. for the months from April to October) in fact, another 300 million kilowatt hours would be added if the summer time regime were also extended to the winter periods (i.e. for the months from November to March), for an overall annual electricity benefit of approximately 800 million kilowatt hours , corresponding to 400 thousand tons of CO2 less in the atmosphere. The overall annual economic savings would instead amount to 160 million euros”.
