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Demand Charges

Customers with an electricity demand greater than 10 kW (10,000 watts) are charged for their demand, in addition to their kWh usage. Learn more here.

What is demand?
Demand is the measure of power required at any one point in time. During a billing period, your demand will fluctuate depending on the number of devices that are operating at various times. For example, if you have four 60-watt lights and only two are on, the demand is 60 watts x 2, or 120 watts. If a third light is turned on, demand increases by 60 watts to 180 watts. Your electric meter will record the highest demand that is reached during the billing period. This is the demand that you will be charged on your electricity bill.

Why charge customers for demand?
When a customer’s equipment requires a large supply of electricity, even for a brief period, the system has to deliver. Because of these requirements, customers whose electricity requirements exceed 10 kW are charged for demand as well as for energy use.

 

Moving to and from a demand rate
In general, rate classification is initially set to a non-demand status. As load information becomes available, and if it indicates a demand greater than 10 kW, you will be assigned a demand rate classification. But don’t worry. If your load is permanently altered at any time after the rate classification is set, for example, as the result of a customer notification or load monitoring checks conducted during our billing process, the rate classification can be changed back. This could mean that you switch from a non-demand rate to a demand rate if the load increases, or from a demand rate to a non-demand rate if the load decreases.

Manage your energy demand and save
By pinpointing when your maximum demand occurs during the day, you’ll be able to determine what contributes to high demand and where savings can be made. You can achieve savings by shaving the peaks of your energy demand by shifting a portion of the electrical load operating at peak times, to non-peak times. For example, instead of having 10 machines operating at 11 a.m., you could have two operating at 10 a.m., six at 11 a.m. and two at 1 p.m.

Questions about demand? Don’t hesitate to contact us.