The smart businesses that are energy and cost-conscious only use what they need and pay for what they use. If you are not doing that then you are wasting away very good money that you could have put to other uses. The peak demand power charges are expected to increase significantly as the utility company will charge companies for the “apparent power”. This means that you will be paying not for the power that you use but the one that is supplied to you or the one that you draw from the distribution network. For those with an eye for efficiency, this is a situation that is unacceptable hence the mad rush amongst most companies to invest in peak demand cost reduction.
With peak demand cost reduction, you will be able to maintain your Power Factor at an acceptable and optimal level that is close to one through a process called Power Factor Correction. Through the Power Factor correction solutions, you will be able to optimally compensate on the reactive power that is supplied to your circuit so that you can draw only the current that you need and increase your loads without a significant increase in the costs. This will dramatically the productivity and energy efficiency of your site without spending tens of thousands of dollars on upgrades for energy efficiency.
Why is the Peak Demand Reduction Important?
The most important benefit of the peak demand reduction is in its ability to help you cut your peak demand charges on your electricity bills by as much as 25%. For those companies that are using at least 160MW per year or paying bills of over $2000 per month, a new punitive pricing regime is about to begin in 2015. These companies’ power usage will be priced in kVA rather than kW. This means that these companies will be paying not just for the power used but also for the apparent power. It is an extra bill that you do not have to bear if you invest power factor correction Gold Coast services.
The electricity retailer will be charging you for the power supplied in kVA rather than the power used in KW so the onus is on you to invest in professional Power Factor Correction in order to reduce this electricity burden for your business. By investing in professional Power Factor correction services for peak demand cost reduction, you will be putting your power consumption back in your hands and saving your business thousands of dollars in utility costs which could have gone to waste. For further details, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_demand.
How the Process Works
In order to understand the importance of peak demand cost reduction, it is necessary to understand how Power Factor works in the first place. The Power Factor is a measure of how efficiently the electrical devices that you have are using power. This is typically a measure of between 0 and 1. A Power Factor of 1 is ideal. It is often displayed in the electrical bill but where it is not displayed, the value can be calculated for you by a company that specializes in peak demand cost reduction. It generally varies from month to month based on your unique usage patterns for your electrical power.
Most people with uncorrected peak demand generally have it hovering between 0.7 and 0.9. It is best to bring it as close to 1 as possible so that you do not pay for more than you are using. The low power factor is typically improved by installing a Power Factor Correction Capacitor which will act as the “silent generators” of reactive power so that your motors do not have to draw it from the utilities.