Peak sharing - A win-win solution for reducing peak demand
- ENCORP, Inc., Windsor, CO (United States)
Expanding deregulation has inspired the electric utility industry to address competition, open access and new technology as rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns have created challenges for utilities to provide more competitive electric services. These challenges have helped shape a wide variety of demand-side management (DSM) programs intended to defer or displace the need for new power plants and transmission/distribution upgrades. One unique DSM solution, peak-sharing, exists because many commercial and industrial sites already own substantial standby emergency generating capacity to maintain continuous power, even during utility interruptions. These standby generator sets represent a large capital investment, yet sit idle most of the time. Through the peak-sharing cooperative effort, utilities can make use of an extensive capacity resource in order to defer or displace the need for new power plants and transmission lines by, in effect, leasing customer-owned standby gen-sets for as few as 50 to 250 hours per year. Customers can also benefit by turning otherwise idle resources into revenue-producing assets without compromising emergency-use priorities. By integrating standby capacity into an intelligent building automation or energy management system, decision making options can be expanded significantly. Such a system can maximize profits from day to day by weighing the trade-offs between load shedding, higher electricity costs, and self-generation.
- OSTI ID:
- 226705
- Journal Information:
- Diesel and Gas Turbine Worldwide, Vol. 28, Issue 3; Other Information: PBD: Apr 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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