Summer time, how much it saved us

In the seven months of daylight saving time, the Italian electricity system saved around 190 million euros. This is the picture that emerges from the data processed by Ternathe company that manages the national transmission grid, which confirms the forecasts made in the spring.

In the whole country they have been 420 million kilowatt hours less consumedan amount equal to the average annual requirement of about 150 thousand families. A positive result not only for the pockets of Italians, but also in terms of environmental sustainability. The lower electricity consumption has in fact allowed Italy not to emit a quantity of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere equal to more or less 200 thousand tons.

Terna calculated the economic benefit analyzing the period of validity of thedaylight savings time, which began on March 27 and will end on October 30 at 3, when the Italians will be asked to move the clock back sixty minutes. In these seven months, according to what they report Arera datathe energy market regulator, the average kilowatt hour price for the protected domestic customer was about 45 gross cents.

Moving the hands forward one hour results in the delay in the use of artificial light. For most of the time DST is in effect, the extra sixty minutes of sunshine fall into a time when work activities are in full swing. Even if in the summer months this benefit is less evident, because the sunset occurs when most of the offices and businesses are already closed, the data relating to savings prove to be useful for the country.

Also for this reason, the energy crisis fueled the debate on the possibility of confirm daylight saving time for the whole yearpossibility that he sees favorable the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (Sima), which became the protagonist in September of an official proposal in this sense to the Draghi government. According to Terna’s analysis, from 2004 to today thanks to the adoption of summer time, Italy has saved an approximate total of 10.9 billion kilowatt hoursgenerating savings for citizens for about 2 billion euros.