Come back, as usual on the last Sunday of the month of October, solar time: this it could be the penultimate year in which the double change takes place during the year (hands one hour ahead on the last Sunday in March and one hour back on the last Sunday in October), given that the European Commission starting from 2020 he would like to oblige each member country to permanently opt for one of the two times. The decision will be made in April 2019, just shortly after the return of summer time, scheduled for Sunday 31 March 2019. Meanwhile, in the night between Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 solar time returns, after seven months of summer time: to be precise, at 3 o'clock clocks go back one hour at night.
As usual, the seven months of summer time have made it possible to save on electricity consumption (and costs): according to the preliminary estimates recorded by Terna, the company that manages the national electricity grid, since 25 March 2018, thanks to that 'daily hour of extra light which led to the postponement of the use of artificial light, lItaly has saved a total of 554 million kilowatt hours (as the average annual electricity consumption of about 205 thousand families), a value corresponding to lower CO emissions2 in the atmosphere for 290 thousand tons.
[smiling_video id="63582″]
[/smiling_video]
Considering that in the reference period a kilowatt hour cost the average domestic customer about 20 euro cents before taxes, the economic savings for the system related to the lower electricity consumption in the summer time period for 2018 amounted to approximately 111 million euro.
As usual, the greatest savings in electricity were recorded in the months of April and October. This is due to the fact that these two months have "shorter" days in terms of natural light than the months of the entire period. Moving the hands one hour forward therefore delays the use of artificial light at a time when work activities are still in full swing. In the summer months such as July and August, on the other hand, since the days are already longer than in April, 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.
From 2004 to 2018, again according to i data processed by Terna, the lower electricity consumption for the country due to summer time was around 9 overall billion and 100 million kilowatt hours (quantity equivalent to the annual electricity demand of a region such as Sardinia) and has resulted in economic savings for citizens of over 1 billion, to be exact about 1 billion and 545 million euros.
