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In < Obsolete Link > Jim K “Simple Electrical Question” 1/26/01 2:53pm, I asked about Time-of-Use rate schedules, and promised to get back when I got a formal answer. Just got it, and John S. was right. Thanks to all for the help.
Recapping, one of the billing components is “demand charge”, which is a $4/kW charge (penalty) for peak usage. The rub was how they calculate this.
The answer from my 6th contact with CPL was that there is no direct measure of kW. Instead, they measure kWh for a given interval (15 min or 30 min in most utilities) and then divide by the the right number (4 if 15 min intervals) to get an approx of kW demand. He called it “calculating the area under the curve.” That makes it an average of power requirements within the period, which is the best measuring scenario for the consumer. Means if I accidentally switch on a high power appliance, and switch it off right away, I suffer very little penalty.
He says that all utilities do it this way, be/c there is no way to directly measure kW.
QED
Replies
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In < Obsolete Link > Jim K "Simple Electrical Question" 1/26/01 2:53pm, I asked about Time-of-Use rate schedules, and promised to get back when I got a formal answer. Just got it, and John S. was right. Thanks to all for the help.
Recapping, one of the billing components is "demand charge", which is a $4/kW charge (penalty) for peak usage. The rub was how they calculate this.
The answer from my 6th contact with CPL was that there is no direct measure of kW. Instead, they measure kWh for a given interval (15 min or 30 min in most utilities) and then divide by the the right number (4 if 15 min intervals) to get an approx of kW demand. He called it "calculating the area under the curve." That makes it an average of power requirements within the period, which is the best measuring scenario for the consumer. Means if I accidentally switch on a high power appliance, and switch it off right away, I suffer very little penalty.
He says that all utilities do it this way, be/c there is no way to directly measure kW.
QED