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Electricity supply relies on accurate load profiling, which records peak and low demand over time to determine equipment needs and maintenance. The load profile varies by consumer category, season, and holiday. Smart grid technology is gaining credibility to coordinate power distribution and allow consumers to sell energy saved from alternative sources.
For better or for worse, the civilized world is totally dependent on commercially produced electricity. The data that is integral to the efficient and reliable delivery of electricity service is calculated and recorded using a load profile, essentially a graph of peak and low electricity demand over a specified period of time. The variables of power generation equipment, fair supply, and energy marketing systems all depend on the accurate recording of an electrical load profile.
The load profile for a given area will obviously vary considerably according to different categories of consumers, including commercial, residential or industrial customers. Peak electricity demand also varies by season and holiday, with the hottest summer days and typically the holiday season placing strain on the electricity supply system. These peaks and troughs of demand are essential data for calculating and evaluating equipment needs, maintenance and upgrades.
The load profile, while often calculated, in part, on meter reading and customer billing, is not intended as an economic predictor. Instead, load profiling is the most efficient method to determine the demands and maintenance of equipment, especially the maintenance and installation of transformers; traditionally, the weak link in the electricity grid. Reading the maximum demand at the transformers at specified intervals, as well as the correlation between types and consumer needs, is the basis of an accurate load profile.
Electricity distribution has evolved into a vast network of generators, transformers, power lines and meters, all separately owned and operated by a significant number of independent electricity suppliers. The numbers and differing electrical needs of customers, the efficiency and age of equipment, and the type and quantity of equipment vary greatly from region to region. This localization ensures that a load profile calculated for one region of a nation or state becomes essentially useless in evaluating and using information outside the particular localized area.
For this reason, the smart grid system, which uses digital technology to deliver electricity cheaper, “greener” and more efficiently, is gaining credibility, at least in the United States, by using load profiling as a method to refine and further coordinate the efficiency, metering, and reliability of the nation’s power distribution through near-minute-by-minute profiling of electrical load. In addition, the smart grid arrangement allows consumers to sell energy saved from the use of alternative energy sources, such as solar or wind power, to their customers. Load profiling via smart grid technology will eventually be expanded and internationalized to include Canada, a significant source of much of the electricity used in the Northern United States
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