The electrical load is the sum of all the power being consumed. The base load is the minimum level of power consumption for a period of twenty-four hours. It represents the power consumption of all those devices that run 24-7, like your refrigerator or air conditioning system that are essential, day or night.
What is Peak Electricity Demand?
Peak load is the period of highest demand and are being characterized by being active for shorter intervals. It is the difference between the base load demand and high demand. Now the supply must follow the same criteria. Power plants have base demand and peak load power plants. Those that run continuously over a broad period of time or essentially all the time. These are the base load power plants that maintain the grid. These are characterized by being powered by nuclear, coal, hydroelectric, geothermal, biogas, biomass, solar thermals and ocean thermal conversion plants. Peak loads are accommodated by diesel electric, natural gas, solar and wind turbines. As the fuel guzzling peak electric producers go online the expense is passed on to the consumer whether private or commercial. It about time for a shave.
Methodologies of Peak Load Shaving
Peak load shaving is the use of peak load shaving generators. These are generally diesel fired gensets that produce auxiliary power during peak hours. Generating your own power during peak load periods is generally cheaper than paying the peak load premium. There are emission standards to consider which are different between peak load generators that must run for extended periods and those standards that govern emergency or standby generators. Peak shaving can:
• Reduce overall electrical utility costs, improves profitability and lowers overhead.
• Some of these peak load generators can be tied to the heating systems and reduce environmental costs.
• Generators operated independent of the utility line supply, providing power to keep up production if power fails that is incoming feed from the grid.
The caveat is that for all of this to work you need a monitoring and power management system in place. This detects the peak threshold and starts your peak load generator automatically running in parallel to the grid. PLC’s or programmable logic controls systems play an important part in controlling the power and power shaving systems. Once the load drops to base levels the parallel systems are shut down.
Solar Auxiliary Power
Another avenue coming on the scene, particularly in the sunbelt regions is solar auxiliary power. Batteries store power until needed. An inverter converts the batteries DC to AC current. Like the diesel generator it kicks in when peak loads are encountered. There are multiple solutions, but one constant is the high tariff of peak load power. Anything that can lower the costs is a sought-after solution. Peak load power is usually billed at a separate rate and can be 2 to 3 times the regular hourly rate. But if you’re a business that consumes gobs of power during peak rates the return on auxiliary power solutions could be substantial.
Power & Energy Management & More in Arvada, Aurora, Centennial, Commerce City, Englewood, Lakewood, Lafayette, Broomfield, Golden, Greenwood Village, Highlands Ranch, Parker, Thornton, Westminster, Wheat Ridge & Greater Denver, Colorado
Hoss Electric specializes in power monitoring and management equipment. Sometimes a redistribution of the workload may provide some somde relief. This can only be considered during a monitoring and power management session. Contact us to get started today!
