

Think of it as looking at a line graph that has peaks and valleys. Block demand uses a fixed scale, rolling demand uses a sliding scale. So, the block demand looks at each 30 minute interval and records the highest one over the course of the month on the display and that is what the customer is charged for. It is also important to note that this is an average over 30 minutes. If it is 30 minutes, that means that the meter begins to calculate the highest demand over a 30 minute interval and that at the end of that interval it starts over. Block demand breaks down each day into what ever interval is programmed into the meter, based on the rate schedule. 5, 10, 15 and 30 are probably the most common. There are different demand intervals that also come into play. It is either calculated on a block or rolling scale.
CALCULATE THE SERVICE DEMAND LOCAD HOW TO
How to Calculate Demandĭemand is calculated within the meter and there are typically two ways that this is done. For instance, if you are already on a demand rate and you buy more equipment and your demand goes beyond a certain threshold, you could be placed on a higher rate. Some rates are also based off of the demand. Some companies require any customer who has three phase power to be on a demand rate. Once a customer goes past this many KWH in one month or in a certain number of months in a twelve month period, they will get a demand meter and be placed on a demand rate. A standard for many utilities is about 3,000 KWH. Also, some companies base who goes on a demand rate based on their KWH consumption. These could also hurt if they are not understood. There may be time of use rates, or coincident peak rates that may help out. How can a customer get around these demand charges? The best way is to know the electric rates that are offered by the utility who serves you. The demand of the customers exceeds the generation capacity of the utility. When a blackout happens, this is what is going on. It also causes them to run their generation plants more to keep up with the demand. If the first customer, who requires larger equipment to serve his needs only comes in once per month as in the example, it will take the utility a very long time to recoup its investment.Īnother reason the utility has demand charges is because the utility pays higher demand charges when it purchases electricity. Why does this matter? This matters, and the reason that these demand charges are there is to help the utility offset its cost for the infrastructure that has been built to supply each customer. If the voltage is 240v then, W = VA and 1000 / 240 = 4.17 amps for customer one and 100 / 240 =. If we convert this to amps, we can see that it takes more amps to run 10 bulbs for one hour than it does for 1 bulb. The demand for the second customer would be 0.1 KW. The first customer in the example would require a larger transformer than the second customer. That is all well and good but where does the demand come into play. Suppose that the second customer, with his one, 100 watt light bulb has baby chickens and does not turn the light off all month because it is required to keep his baby chickens warm all month. If these 10, 100 watt light bulbs run for one hour, they will consume 1,000 watthours or 1 KWH for the month (10 x 100 = 1000 watts / 1000 = 1 KW x 1 hour = 1 KWH). Now, let’s suppose that the first customer has a warehouse and only comes in once a month for one hour just to check up on things. Suppose that one customer has 10, 100 watt light bulbs and another has only one, 100 watt light bulb. To help understand this better, let’s look at an example. Demand on the other hand is the rate at which the energy is consumed. In most cases, this is somewhere around thirty days.

The KWH portion of the bill is the total amount of energy that has been consumed for the billing cycle for which the bill was calculated. One is KWH, or kilowatt hours, and the other is their demand, which is measured in KW, kilowatts. The first question is, what is demand? When commercial and industrial customers, and even some residential customers now, get their bill they typically notice two types of charges. In addition I hope they develop some tools on how to reduce their demand. I want any commercial or industrial customer who comes across this website and has a demand meter to understand demand meters and how to calculate demand. I am going to attempt to break this down so that it is easy to understand. They also want to know if the demand meter can be removed. Customers want to know what demand meters are and why they are on their buildings. One of the questions that I get most from commercial and industrial customers is, what is demand and what is a demand meter? They want to know what demand is and why they have it on their bill.
