Implications COVID-19 on performance and energy management in the production electricity

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has directly impacted the electric power industry; the energy sector has experienced huge losses in electricity production. These losses have also affected the reliability of communication and employees’ performance, hence destabilizing the electric power system. This article aims at achieving two objectives. First, analyzing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the communication of performance (human error and human factors) and energy management in electricity production. Second, to develop a conceptual framework model to alleviate effects of the pandemic on the power sector and then improve energy management and human performance. This paper involves investigating the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global production of electricity in the first quarters of 2019 and 2020. A conceptual model was developed based on a case study. Additionally, to ensure reliability, a variable, namely COVID-19, was used as a moderator to examine the effects of the independent and dependent variables. The results show that scores for the internet of things (IoT) with awareness and communication (A&C) and workplace environment management were high with Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.87 for the IoT and 0.89 for A&C. These numbers are important indicators of factors that could affect performance and energy management and should not be overlooked by the top management. The results also indicate that the pandemic has had a direct effect on the electricity production sector, and the conceptual framework model revealed that COVID-19, as a moderator, has a direct effect on the variables that significantly affect the improvement of both energy management and employee performance. The case study’s results confirm the poor performance in power plant maintenance and operation, in which human error would increase especially in Iraqi power plants that have not yet adopted any internationally recognized standards for energy management. This paper contributes to the literature studying COVID-19’s impact on the electricity sector in two ways: first, by developing a model to assist the electricity production sector mitigating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and second, by providing a detailed investigation into the pandemic’s impact on the electricity sector’s global production. The findings are hoped to assist researchers and research centers in understanding the general and specific framework to manage the pandemic’s effects on electricity production.