On May 29, 10:11*pm, "
wrote:
On Sun, 29 May 2011 21:04:29 -0400, Home Guy wrote:
HeyBub wrote:

So are you saying that customers with "demand meters" are billed
on the basis of their peak demand - a reading based on only a
few minutes worth of energy usage as seen over an entire billing
period?

How is that a fair or equitable way to bill a customer?

Because the cost to generate the electricity is small compared to
the cost to deliver the energy. The cost to deliver the energy,
in turn, is determined by the infrastructure needed (poles,
transformers, generation capability, etc.). A commercial customer
with even a short peak demand may require more infrastructure to
support that demand than dozens of residential customers.

So what would you consider or where would you place the threshold for
which demand metering should be used by a customer?

What monthly kwh usage would you consider "worthy" or significant enough
for an electricity supplier to use a demand meter to cover this
so-called significant cost of delivering this huge amount of brief peak
energy?

It's not the monthly kWh usage that determines whether demand metering is used
or useful. *It's the *peak* usage and when that peak occurs. *The
infrastructure has to be built for the largest demand, not average. *Where the
threshold is placed is a different matter for each power company.

Would you consider, say, 2000 kwh? *Would a single month's total usage
of 2000 kwh qualify a customer for a demand meter? *Would 4 consecutive
months of 2000 kwh be the line-in-the-sand for putting a customer on a
demand meter?

I don't believe any residential customers have demand metering, but I could be
wrong.

http://www.nationalgridus.com/niagar...lec-demand.pdf

Demand meters for such small users are total bull****.

Define "such small".

Anyone with a 100 amp, single-phase service that is using their service
at 50% for an entire month would tip the scale at a 4300 kwh bill.
Hardly what I'd call justified for utilizing 50% of the smallest
installable utility service.

You wouldn't have demand metering with a 100A service. *...at least not a
residential service.




yes you might. APS in Arizona offers demand metering to residential
customers, (at least they did when I lived there)

The so called PEAK demand was based on the highest power used during
any 60 minute period over the billing period. With demand metering,
they lower the kWh rate but they charge you also for the peak. For
example, with standard billing you might pay $0.12 per kWh. With
demand billing you would pay $0.06 per kHW plus $5.00 per peak kWh.
So for example if I used 100kWh during and a peak of 5 kWh during the
month the charge would be $60 plus $25. If you are just a little
careful you can save a lot of money. If you are just a little
careless it can cost you a lot of money.

Also following this thread some of you seem to be mixing up power
factor and demand billing, they are two different things. Some
industrial billing plans bill by kWh, peak kWh AND power factor.

Mark