Exploring the climatic impacts on residential electricity consumption in Jiangsu, China

Electricity consumption is of interest both from the perspectives of adaptation to climate change and emission reductions. This study examines the climatic impacts on residential electricity consumption for Jiangsu, China that overtook the world's 13th largest economy-Australia in 2018. Temperature response functions are introduced into estimating the effect of heating degree days and cooling degree days on the electricity consumption of urban and rural residents, using city-level panel data. The results show that both higher cooling demand in the summer and higher heating demand in the winter leads to increased electricity consumption. The electricity demand will be increased as rural disposable income and the urbanization rate in Jiangsu increase due to residents having greater demands for temperature regulation. While the marginal effect of urban disposable income is negative. When estimating the electricity demand of urban and rural residents, it should be considered that the random fluctuations in the annual precipitation, as well as the population movements (inflow/outflow) among cities with different development levels.