Can you convert kWh from monthly electricity meter readings to maximum demand kW or kVA? I have been provided with a tonne of metering data for a site I need to work out the maximum demand (kVA) that the building uses. Is this possble?
Can you convert kWh from monthly electricity meter readings to maximum demand kW or kVA? I have been provided with a tonne of metering data for a site I need to work out the maximum demand (kVA) that the building uses. Is this possble?
Not really. at least not without more information. 3000kWh per month could be a steady 4kW load or 100kW for 1hr/day (approx). If you knew something about the kind of loads (e.g. continuous industrial process running 24x7 or simple offices open 8hrs/day 5days/week you might be able refine your guess a bit.
If you had half-hour readings, rather than monthly, you might be able to have a bit more confidence in your guesses - but you'd likely still need to know a bit about the nature of the loads - e.g. a few high-power but short duration loads (like an instantaneous electric shower) can still throw things out a lot.
- Andy.
No.
If the site is on HH billing you might be able to request MD specifically from the meter operator / energy supplier. Some kWh meters also have an MD register which you can interrogate via the screen/buttons, but not all have it enabled and it may well not have been reset for some time.
Note that even HH data will not tell you, for example, whether 10kWh over a period is 20kW heaters running continuously or a 200kW motor running for 3 minutes.
Agree, the answer is 'not really' as you do not know how bursty the load is, - but you may be able to use a bit of intelligence in the spying sense, if it is a building with folk in it with lights and lots of small machines on all day, then it is likely to be pretty uniform, at least within working hours. A restaurant will have more cooking load at mealtimes and at the other extreme a nuclear test facility will do occasional big shots and probably ring up the electricity company to agree when is a good time to press the red button ..
But peak demand that worries the DNO does not really mean inrush surges of sub second duration, but demand over the time that substations heat up and street cable fuses blow. Now both of those can take 100% overload for some time, the transformer probably for an hour, the cables for some tens of minutes depending on size.
On a small scale we see the same effect on the house ring, so an apparent overload of the running of a toaster and a kettle together for breakfast is not an issue, but the same current for the tumble dryer and washer together for an hour sometimes is ...
Mike.
Have you considered using a PEL (Power Energy Logger) by Chauvin-Arnoux this would show you real time Max demand and usage
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