Peak load management - how industry and companies can avoid peak loads

Why is dynamic load management so important in industry? Is it worthwhile to use an intelligent load control system to reduce peak loads?

Since peak loads at the end of the year often cause high costs, it is important to reduce or avoid peak loads (also known as peak shaving ). We offer you the right solution and accompany you on the way to cost savings and more energy efficiency.

First of all, we would like to refresh your knowledge and explain what a load peak is and how peak power reduction works.

How does a load peak occur?

In the case of companies and industrial operations that draw more than 100,000 kWh of electricity per year, the power (kW) is usually measured and billed by the network operator in addition to the amount of energy (kWh). This takes into account the increased load on the supply network once a certain amount of power is drawn. With steadily rising electricity prices, load management is becoming increasingly important for many businesses.

In an ordinary tariff, payment for the purchased power is based on the annual load peak, the highest load within 15 minutes (peak load) that has occurred in a year. This value is overwritten in the load peak memory of the meter at the delivery point monotonically increasing with the last highest 15-minute load and reset at the beginning of each month. The monthly current peak can thus be read out from the load peak memory at the end of each month. 

The value of the memory is overwritten monotonically increasing with the last 15-minute load, if this was higher than the previous value.

Decisive for the occurrence of a new current peak is therefore the actual power curve (resolution in the graphic here: 15 seconds) and how this is averaged over the 15-minute time window of the load peak storage. This means that a new load peak occurs as soon as within a 15-minute interval the integral under the active power is greater than the integral under the value of the load peak storage. This corresponds to the comparison of the sourced active power in each new 15-minute interval with the maximum sourced active power in such an interval. Thus, a time shift of the actual power curve to the time windows has a large impact on the value of the 15-minute load. In addition, it is quite possible for power to occur that is higher than the load peak without this directly leading to an increase in the load peak.

Accurate data acquisition with real-time data, such as with the ENIT Agent, is therefore also essential for the detection of peak loads and is the basic building block for advanced energy management. In order to keep the peak load as low as possible and thus save costs, it is worth taking a close look at the responsible consumers and a subsequent process optimization: How peak load capping or reduction works and which interventions are possible via intelligent load management, we will be happy to train you on this in a workshop and discuss the necessary steps for saving energy and costs.

Do you know the exact origin of your load peaks? We will be happy to advise you on your individual process optimization and help you reduce peak loads.

All about load peaks and load peak management

Learn everything important about peak loads and how to prevent them with a dynamic load management system in our webinar.

To the webinar