In 2018, New York's morning electricity demand climbed. In 2026, the same hours go the other way — and the reason is not that people stopped using electricity.
In March and April 2018, measured demand across New York rose by about 850 MW during the morning (8–11 a.m.). In the same months of 2026, it fell by about 923 MW.
Basis: U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Metered electricity demand in the New York ISO falls midday because of small-scale solar” (June 26, 2026)
The reason is small-scale solar — rooftop and other systems under 1 megawatt. They aren't metered as power plants, so when the sun is up they simply make the demand the grid sees go down.
Basis: Same EIA article
New York's total solar capacity has grown by 5.6 gigawatts since 2018, and about half of that (2.8 GW) is small-scale.
Basis: Same EIA article
And the evening now spikes harder: a 681 MW rise in 2018 became a 2,221 MW rise in 2026, as the sun goes down and everyone gets home.
Basis: Same EIA article (4–7 p.m. changes)
Energy people nicknamed this shape “the duck curve”, because a daytime dip with an evening spike looks a bit like a duck. The EIA article doesn't use that word — but the shape it describes is the same one.
※ A hypothesis is an idea that isn't proven yet.
📊 Sources for the rankings mentioned in this note (links to the original data and retrieval dates) are on each quiz page below.