Load Shedding is Vital to Reduce Demand Peaks by Utilities

Many companies are noticing that demand costs are rising due to utilities having to pay higher distribution charges by the electricity suppliers. Many companies are doing load shedding to reduce demand usage by installing demand controllers by EG Energy Controls. These demand controllers will do load shedding when it notices that a demand peak is coming. These smart systems will interface with the utilities meter and will turn on/off non-essential loads during that period. For example, it may stagger air conditioners, heaters and machines during the peak demand periods. This usually occurs in hot summer days and cold winter days. By doing load shedding even once a month, a company can save thousands of dollars.

Shown below is one example from Tennessee showing that the utility wants to add new demand charges to their customers. Please check with your local utility to see  if “demand charges” are being added to your future power bill so you will be prepared to install a demand controller beforehand.


TENNESSEE

Changes to Tennessee Valley Authority’s rate structure that went into effect this month could translate into larger bills for Tullahoma Utilities Board.

The pricing changes, for now, will affect only distributors of TVA power, such as TUB and Duck River EMC, and not homeowners or businesses who ultimately use TVA-generated power.

However, TVA is moving in October 2012 toward a major change in pricing structure that would price electric power differently at different season of the year or times of the day.

By adding a demand charge or time-of-day method of pricing, power utilities in other states have encouraged consumers to limit consumption during high-demand periods and shift their energy consumption to low-demand periods, such as the middle of the night.

Brian Skelton, TUB general manager, said Thursday that TVA is giving utilities a rate break between high electricity demand seasons and is charging higher rates during summer months when air conditioners are commonly running and in the winter months when home heating increases electricity demand.

Skelton said the process can encourage electricity users to conserve power.

 “We couldn’t afford anything like that,” he said, adding that TUB will strive to inform customers about the situation so that they can conserve in their electric usage to lower the peak demand.

The billing process is moving toward “time of use pricing” in October 2012 where TUB and other distributors will be installing “smart meters” that electronically send readings to the TUB office. Consumers will be charged different rates for electricity during different seasons and times of day to reflect the differing costs of generating more power, based upon overall demand.

Skelton said the process is geared toward encouraging consumers to change their usage habits, waiting until the lower demand time frame to do laundry or turn up their air conditioners or heating units.

He said TVA is trying to reduce power demand, particularly the amount of electricity used all at once, including during hot and cold periods. Switching to the demand and energy contract is one step in that direction, and changing to time-of-use rates is another, he added.

What Makes a Good Energy Management System?

As financial resources become tighter, financial decision makers are required to manage the company’s’ budget even more effectively. Now more than ever, corporations are seeing the need to optimize their facilities. Still one of the most crucial areas is that is forgotten is main and sub-load energy management & tracking.

How Does it Work?
The Energy Management system by EG Energy Controls is a powerful M&T (monitoring & targeting) web based energy management software. The web based energy management software allows remote access to the crucial data for energy savings. The system is built to monitor the main load and  up to 17 sub load metering  devices within a facility to better detect energy leaks, provide benchmark reports, bill verification, and be alerted when abnormal energy usage occurs.

What Can Be Monitored?
Not only are electrical sub-loads monitored but as well propane/natural gas, oil, and water consumption for the facility. The consumption data can be compared to the utility bill for bill verification. As well, you have better control of determining the time of day the most usage has occurred and implement equipment or procedures to reduce the usage. For industrial applications that require quality of power measurements, the ESS can easily provide information on any electrical details such as P.F, harmonics, phase – phase balancing, and more. This is an ideal add-on for large industries such as mining to process plants that need to ensure that a the quality of power is at the highest in order to prevent electrical failure and loss of profit.
Advanced Energy Monitoring
Advanced reports allows comparisons between different locations and monitored loads. This way the facility can be optimized to meet a corporate standard for facility. The reporting engine has been built to allow any type of reporting condition. You think it – ESS will crunch it. Reports can be easily exported to excel or pdf.
Graphs & Charts
Graphing capabilities provide information such as daily, monthly, yearly trends and can be easy glanced over using various line chart, bar, or pie. The ESS provides a graph overly to view different data over the same window for quick comparisons. A load profile of one store can be compared with another or benchmarking graph and report can be viewed when comparing the performance of new equipment.

Weather kWh Prediction

Weather based energy prediction has been included to accurately predict the facilities kw usage 2 hours in advance. The advantage is that you will only be alerted when energy usage is abnormal, because weather conditions will be used in the evaluation. As well, with ESS Weather you can compare a month kWh usage with another month and accurately determine the kWh usage based on humidity and temperature. No more guessing!
Notification & Alerts
The energy management software is built to provide only the information required since facility energy managers and financial officers are focused on core responsibilities. Alerts and notifications can be setup to notify if loads are not running, if a load exceeds kWh usage, if loads are running outside operating hours. Many other notification & alert conditions can be easily customized with the ESS.
Server & SQL Database
A good energy management system offers 2 options for hosting the software that analyzes the data collected. Option 1. hosted or a dedicated server installed at the head-office facility that runs the ESS web interface. The server can communicate with over 200 locations. Having a system on site ensures security for bank facilities and government institutions as well corporations. All data is stored on the dedicated server on SQL 2008 database to ensure the fastest data crunching and can be easily interfaced with SAP or other enterprise accounting management system to provide necessary data. Option 2, is to have it hosted at a server farm, this reduces the need to buy a server, but makes the data less secure.
Demand Control Add-on
A good energy management system should have the option for  demand control using the DemandMiser module. The system will automatically detect a demand peak and load shed up to 8 loads through cycle or step process, thus reducing energy costs. Custom load limits can be set for each month and will automatically adjust the load limit if more energy is needed for the building.