{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T15:01:05Z","timestamp":1790780465860,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":66,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790726400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790726400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/doi.wiley.com\/10.1002\/tdm_license_1.1"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["rsnz.onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The COVID\u201019 pandemic prompted governments worldwide to implement containment measures, disrupting economic activity and electricity demand. In New Zealand, two key policy frameworks\u2014the Alert System and the COVID\u201019 Protection Framework (Traffic Lights)\u2014were introduced over nearly 3 years. This study applies an augmented ARMA model, supplemented by descriptive analysis and cumulative sum tests, to estimate stage\u2010specific associations between containment settings and changes in national electricity demand from 28 February 2021 to 31 July 2023. The ARMA estimates indicate that Alert Level 1 was associated with a 3% increase in electricity demand and the Red Light phase with a 2.5% decline. The two estimates were statistically significant at the 5% and 10% levels, respectively, whereas coefficients for the remaining containment stages were not statistically significant. Cumulative sum tests provided evidence of structural breaks during Alert Level 1 and the Orange Light phase. The study also documents a downward trend following the removal of containment measures and shifts in daily and weekly usage patterns, offering insights for electricity demand management, infrastructure planning and energy policy under future disruptions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/snz2.70082","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T14:47:04Z","timestamp":1790779624000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["From Lockdowns to Red Lights: Behavioural Shifts and Structural Breaks in Electricity Demand in New Zealand"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"56","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-3212-5544","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mingjing","family":"Dong","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics Business School University of Auckland  Auckland New Zealand"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6873-0582","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Le","family":"Wen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics Business School University of Auckland  Auckland New Zealand"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9027-1485","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mingyue Selena","family":"Sheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Energy Centre Business School University of Auckland  Auckland New Zealand"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1954-2171","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yayu","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Green Energy and Storage Lanzhou University of Technology  Lanzhou China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7351-4307","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel","family":"Sloot","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"French\u2010German Institute for Environmental Research, Institute for Industrial Production Karlsruhe Institute of Technology  Karlsruhe Germany"},{"name":"Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis Karlsruhe Institute of Technology  Karlsruhe Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3365-9595","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kristin","family":"Limbach","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"French\u2010German Institute for Environmental Research, Institute for Industrial Production Karlsruhe Institute of Technology  Karlsruhe Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6013-4674","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wolf","family":"Fichtner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"French\u2010German Institute for Environmental Research, Institute for Industrial Production Karlsruhe Institute of Technology  Karlsruhe Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_10_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.enbuild.2021.111280"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Aksoy C. 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