What is “demand control”?
Demand control, also called demand management, is the process of understanding where, when and why energy demand spikes occur and taking ongoing, automatic measures to reduce them or shift them with minimal impact on facility operations.
Why is demand control important to you?
Demand control, when properly utilized, can achieve major energy savings without impacting facility operations. Utility companies refer to the energy demand spikes in a facility as “peak demand”. The utilities make a significant investment in infrastructure (transformers, wires, etc…) in order to make available to you this level of peak demand whether you are using it all the time or not. In order to recover their costs, utilities add a demand charge to your utility bill relative to your highest peak demand level. In some cases (more & more) this demand charge can be a significant portion of the overall electrical bill. Demand control is implemented to lower the charge associated with peak demand. Unfortunately, properly implementing demand control is very difficult due to the random coincidental run cycle of equipment within a facility. In other words, the peak demand level can occur at any random time as the site’s collection of electrical loads cycle on/off in their normal pattern of operation and coincide as a function of pure chance.
How can Powerit Solutions use demand control to achieve energy savings?
Powerit Solutions’ people are experts at creating energy savings using a technique called “predictive demand control”. Predictive demand control is the process of identifying when peak demand levels will occur and taking swift and efficient action to manage loads to reduce the size of the energy demand spike. Powerit Solutions implements predictive demand control in a way that does not compromise load functionality or impact productivity, building comfort, or product quality. Powerit Solutions can work with your current automation and control systems. It does not replace them. Reducing peak demand in this way is an extremely achievable energy bill savings opportunity for industrial and commercial end users, whether you are looking for your first good energy savings project or you feel you’ve tried everything else.
Key Features & Benefits:
- Measurable energy bill savings via peak demand level reduction
- Direct and automated load reduction
- User-defined load protection schemes to ensure productivity security
- Real-time utility bill monitoring and reporting
- Load status control, monitoring and reporting
- Maximum reduction achieved via high-level demand prediction and dynamic savings set-point configuration
- Remote demand control system access and alarming
