What is peak shaving?
Peak shaving means the reduction of electricity consumption during the occurrence of peak loads. Since the power grid can be overloaded during these times, it is crucial to reduce consumption to avoid grid congestion and reduce costs. Peak shaving ensures that electricity demand is controlled during these critical phases.
What is a peak load in electricity?
A peak load occurs when demand for electricity rises particularly sharply. This can occur both within a household or company and in the entire power grid.
- Load peaks at home or in the company: A load peak can occur when several devices or machines are in operation at the same time and cause high power consumption. This can be the case, for example, when using energy-intensive devices such as heaters, air conditioning systems or production machines. Such peak loads are usually brief, but they can have a significant impact on the electricity bill and also impair the energy efficiency of a household or company.
- Peak loads in the power grid: A peak load in the power grid occurs when the total demand for electricity in a supply area rises sharply within a short period of time. These spikes can be triggered by seasonal fluctuations, weather conditions, or sudden consumer behavior. In these times, electricity suppliers must rely on more expensive, quickly connectable power plants to meet increased demand. This results in an increase in electricity prices, which are passed on to end users. In addition, the high grid load can lead to instabilities, which causes further costs for grid management.
How does peak shaving work?
Peak shaving uses targeted measures to reduce power consumption during peak loads. This can be done in various ways:
- Energy efficiency: Improving energy efficiency in companies reduces overall electricity consumption. This reduces the level of peak loads, as less energy is required at times of high demand. Better utilization of the power grid ensures that fewer peak loads occur, which both reduces costs and relieves the grid.
- Intelligent energy management: Modern energy management systems make it possible to analyze and dynamically adjust power consumption in real time. These systems can react to changes in grid load and control consumption in a targeted manner. This automatically reduces power consumption in times of high demand, which helps to avoid peak loads and enables balanced energy distribution.
- Load shifting: Load shifting shifts electricity consumption of energy-intensive activities to times with lower grid load. Companies can carry out their production or other energy-intensive processes specifically at low-load times. As a result, electricity consumption is reduced in times of high demand, which results in both lower costs and better utilization of the power grid.
- Load limitation: When limiting the load, power consumption is reduced in real time. Control systems monitor consumption and automatically reduce specific devices or processes during peak loads when the grid load is high. This helps to reduce overall consumption and ensure the stability of the power grid.
- Use of storage systems: By using battery storage systems or other systems such as cold stores as energy storage, companies can store surplus energy at convenient times and use it during peak loads.
Advantages of peak shaving
Peak shaving offers companies and private households a wide range of benefits:
- Cost savings: By shifting electricity consumption to times of lower demand, companies can significantly reduce their electricity costs.
- Optimizing energy consumption: Shaving peak loads results in a better and more even distribution of power consumption throughout the day. This enables companies to improve their energy efficiency and optimise their operating processes, resulting in a more cost-efficient and sustainable use of energy in the long term.
- Flexibility and independence: Companies and households that rely on peak shaving gain more control over their energy consumption and can increase their flexibility. They are less dependent on fluctuations in energy markets and can optimize their own consumption patterns by using intelligent systems.
Conclusion: Peak shaving as the key to energy optimization
Peak shaving is an efficient strategy for reducing the demand for electricity during expensive and grid-straining phases. It helps to reduce electricity costs, stabilize the power grid and promote energy optimization. Companies and households that rely on peak shaving contribute to the sustainable and efficient use of energy.
