The way you use electricity is just as important as how much electricity you use each month. The higher the demand for energy placed on Norris Public Power District (Norris) and its power supplier, Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD), during peak times of the month, the higher the cost of purchased power is.
Peak hours for electricity denote the times during the day when the demand for electricity is at its highest. Typically, electric demand peaks in the evening during the summer and in the morning during the winter.
How can you manage your peak demand?
Instead of running multiple appliances that consume electricity simultaneously, stagger their run times throughout the day and set them to run at staggered times during late evening hours or throughout the night.
Energy Consumption vs. Demand
Consumption “Energy Charge” is measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh). Demand is measured in kilowatts (kW).
If you were to plug in a single 1,000-watt appliance that ran continuously for 10 hours, it would consume 10 kWh of energy. The highest demand that took place was 1 kW since no additional appliances were plugged in or ran. In comparison, a home that uses multiple appliances, say ten 1,000-watt appliances that all run for the same one-hour period, consumes the same amount of energy (10 kWh), but creates ten times the demand – 10 kW. This requires Norris’ power supplier to produce power in less time to meet the higher demand.
Norris purchases power from NPPD based on the peak demand of our customers. Peak demand refers to the time of day when the demand for electricity is highest. Peak demand seldom occurs for more than a few hours or fractions of hours each month, but NPPD must maintain sufficient generating and transmission capacity to always supply the peak demand.
Breaking kWh and kW Down
Your stove is a 15,000-watt appliance, or 15 kW. If you use this appliance for 15 minutes, your demand would be 15 kW since demand is calculated as the average size of load over 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, if you shut off the stove, you would have only used 3.75 kWh of energy during that hour, but your demand is still 15 kW.
