Daily Load Profile

Project Agreements

Overview

Pivotal180 Introduction to battery storage course covers a range of topics related to battery storage including energy markets fundamentals, types of battery storage, the uses of storage capacity, battery terminology, the economics behind batteries, and the risks associated with the storage investments.

In this video, we discuss the  need to balance the demand with the right amount of supply, as we never really know what the demand will be on any given day.

Video

Video Transcript 

The graph shown on screen is called a load profile. On the Y axis, We see the total demand required to meet supply.

Demand is typically shown as the capacity required in order to meet the demand on the grid. This is measured most commonly in megawatts or gigawatts. Demand varies across the day. Time of day is specified on the X axis, from midnight one day to midnight the following.

Demand profile you can see on screen is a common residential or city load profile. Just note, this can vary substantially, depending on the time of year, the use of energy, or the climate in which you live.

We made this particular demand profile up, in order to help us explain the concept here.

The energy demand is lowest sometime between the hours of three and 4:00 AM, as we sleep. Makes sense. As the general population awakes, the energy demand increases, as we turn on lights, make breakfast, travel to work or school, and then use our computers or machinery for work. We have a morning peak of around 93 gigawatts on our load profile. he energy usage declines in the afternoon, as we head home from school or work.  However, as we are arrive home, turn on the TV, cook, and use Netflix, demand increases again. This is the evening peak, shown at around a 110 gigawatts.

This curve will vary, based on the prevailing weather of the day. Cooler morning and a hotter evening may have a slightly different load profile on in the grid. Weekends will also be different to weekdays.

The point is, this is not a constant. We will always need to balance the demand with the right amount of supply. And we never really know what the demand will be on any given day.