Resilient Power Project Webinar: Energy Storage for Demand Charge Management

Non-residential utility customers face two charges on their electricity bills: one for the volume of electricity used (kilowatt-hours) and one for the maximum power used during a billing period (kilowatts). This second of these charges is known as the demand charge. In some regions, it can account for well over half of a customer’s electricity bill.

Solar installations tend to reduce the volumetric side of the bill, through direct energy consumption and net-metering but do little to reduce peak demand. With the addition of an energy storage system, consumers have the potential to significantly reduce the cost of demand charges. This process of demand management is known as “peak shaving”.

A wide variety of facilities can benefit from demand charge management – from commercial housing and businesses to schools and wastewater treatment facilities. Not only can these facilities benefit from energy storage through utility cost savings, they can also use the system to supply emergency power to critical loads when the grid is down. Depending on the utility rate structure and available revenue opportunities, this reliable resilient power can be provided essentially free of cost to the facility.

This webinar introduced the concept of energy storage for demand charge management and featured guest speakers from two companies offering demand management solutions – Green Charge Networks and Schneider Electric.

This webinar was a presentation of Clean Energy Group’s Resilient Power Project. For more information, please visit www.resilient-power.org.