Influence of Daylight Saving Time Cancellation on Electricity Load

Russia had been applying Daylight Saving Time (DST) policy until 2011 when this practice was officially repealed. In 2011, country turned on year-round Summer Time which was replaced by year-round Winter Time in 2014. Exploiting these two natural experiments, this study aims to reveal the effect of DST cancellation on energy consumption by comparing DST policy with year-round Summer Time and year-round Winter Time in six Russian regions. A detailed dataset on electricity load and weather characteristics in hourly dynamics is used to apply difference-in-differences approach. The findings of the research illustrate heterogeneity of DST effect by regions: DST cancellation and switch to year-round Summer Time is indicated to be reasonable for two regions, while transition to year-round Winter Time is ineffective for five regions resulting in energy losses. We also reveal a diverse DST effect throughout a day.