Peak Shaving Calculator

Use this calculator to determine if distributed generation makes sense for your application.
On Peak1
Off Peak1
kWh from bill 2
kWh
kWh cost 3
$
$
Demand is billed on4
 kW  kVA  Not Billed
Demand ratchet period4a
months
Billed Demand 5
Billed Demand cost 6
$
$
Billed hours this month 7
hours
kvar from bill 8
kvar
Service Voltage
 Volts  kV
PF from bill 9
Engine Fuel Source
 Diesel
$/Gal
 Nat. Gas
$/MCF10


1If your utility bill has only 1 or more than two billing catagories, put the most costly charges in the "on-peak" and the balance of the charges in the "off-peak"
2The total energy consumed this billing period.
3The total cost of the energy consumed this billing period. May include multiple charges such as "generation charge", "transmission charges", "stranded cost charges" or any other charge that is proportional to the number of kWh consumed.
4Select if you are billed for demand and if so, what are the units.
4aIf your utility holds (ratchets) a peak demand for more than 1 month, select the value here. The longer the ratchet, the more attractive peak shaving will be.
5Enter the magnitude of the demand billing. The units will be whatever you selected under "Demand is billed on" above.
6Enter the total cost. If your bill is divided into less than 2 or more than two, just enter the highest billing period in the "on peak" column.
7Determine the number of hours this billing period that represent "on-peak" billing. If the bill does not provide this, you can calculate this by multiplying the number of days this billing period that have on-peak billing times by the number of hours in each of those days that are "on peak". For example: assume 4 weeks this billing period, of which on-peak billing is 8AM to 6PM (12 hours/day) for 5 days a week for a total of 60 hours a week and 240 hours per month.
8If your bill does not provide kvar, leave these fields blank. If your bill only provides one entry of kvar, put that value in the "on-peak kvar" field.
9If your bill does not provide this, leave blank. Sometimes this value is located in a separate billing line called "PF penalty" or "PF charge".
10MCF = 1000 cubic feet. Same as MMBTU (million BTU) since 1000 BTU=1SCF of natural gas.
Copyright Eaton Corporation