An analysis of spring and summertime months May through September (MJJAS), electric peak power demand and consumption was undertaken to show differing energy demand trends in coastal and inland California. The work follows previous findings by Lebassi et al. (2009) in which the authors, through analysis of summer surface JJA mean monthly maximum air temperature trends between 1950-2005 for two California air basins, detected cooling trends at low elevation coastal areas open to marine air penetration and warming trends at inland and high elevation coastal areas.

Data was obtained from the California Energy Commission (CEC), Energy Information Administration (EIA) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Linear regressions show select coastal areas have statistically significant increased peak hourly energy demand per year and decreased peak hourly energy demand per capita from 1993 to 2004 consistent with the climate trends. Select inland areas have increased peak hourly energy demand per year and increased peak hourly energy demand per capita from 1993 to 2004. Further analysis for the residential sector included monthly and annual for all coastal and inland counties electric power consumption per capita from 1990 to 2009. Results show monthly and yearly consumption per capita for coastal counties are lower than inland counties. However, the analysis reflected an overall increasing trend of monthly residential consumption per capita for all California for summer months with a monthly peak in August.