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Consumer Characteristics

This document discusses load characteristics that are important for electrical system design. It describes how consumers can be broadly classified into residential, commercial, and industrial customers. It also defines key terms used to describe a load's changing demand over time, such as demand, maximum demand, average demand, diversified demand, and more. Finally, it characterizes how individual electric loads vary with voltage changes and how customers are typically grouped into classes for analysis based on similar demand behaviors.

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64 views

Consumer Characteristics

This document discusses load characteristics that are important for electrical system design. It describes how consumers can be broadly classified into residential, commercial, and industrial customers. It also defines key terms used to describe a load's changing demand over time, such as demand, maximum demand, average demand, diversified demand, and more. Finally, it characterizes how individual electric loads vary with voltage changes and how customers are typically grouped into classes for analysis based on similar demand behaviors.

Uploaded by

bsee4
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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2.

LOAD CHARACTERISTICS

To begin the electrical design of transmission and distribution systems, it is necessary to know the
characteristics of the building blocks upon which the design of the systems is predicated; that is, the consumer to be
served. Obviously, each consumer cannot be considered independently, but they may be studied as a class and as
groups as they affect the final design of the systems.

For convenience, consumers may be broadly classified as residential, commercial, and industrial. The
requirements of each type to be determined include:

1. The total consumption of electricity over a period of time, (say) annually.


2. The changes in rate of consumption, (say) hourly, over periods of time: daily, weekly, monthly, annually.
3. The voltage required for the proper operation of the loads to be served; the tolerance permitted in the variation
of this voltage, and whether the rapidity of such variations would cause flicker of lights to result.
4. The reliability requirements of the loads to be served, that is, the degree of interruption to service, as well as
variations in the three items above, that may be tolerated or permitted.

Electric systems consist essentially of conductors in the form of wire, terminals, blades of switches or circuit
breakers, wires in transformers, motors, and other equipment. The criteria on which their designs are based are two:
1. The permissible drop in voltage or pressure of the electricity flowing through them, and
2. The permissible energy loss caused by electricity flowing through them, manifested in the form of heat to be
dissipated harmlessly.

The load that an individual customer or a group of customers presents to the distribution system is
constantly changing. Every time a light bulb or an electrical appliance is switched on or off, the load seen by the
distribution feeder changes. In order to describe the changing load, the following terms are defined:
1. Demand
• Load averaged over a specific period of time
• Load can be kW, kvar, kVA, or A
• Must include the time interval
• Example: the 15-minute kW demand is 100 kW
2. Maximum Demand
• Greatest of all demands that occur during a specific time
• Must include demand interval, period, and units
• Example: the 15-minute maximum kW demand for the week was 150 kW
3. Average Demand
• The average of the demands over a specified period (day, week, month, etc.)
• Must include demand interval, period, and units
• Example: the 15-minute average kW demand for the month was 350 kW
4. Diversified Demand
• Sum of demands imposed by a group of loads over a particular period
• Must include demand interval, period, and units
• Example: the 15-minute diversified kW demand in the period ending at 9:30 was 200 kW
5. Maximum Diversified Demand
• Maximum of the sum of the demands imposed by a group of loads over a particular period
• Must include demand interval, period, and units
• Example: the 15-minute maximum diversified kW demand for the week was 500 kW
6. Maximum Noncoincident Demand
• For a group of loads, the sum of the individual maximum demands without any restriction that they occur
at the same time
• Must include demand interval, period, and units
• Example: the maximum noncoincident 15-minute kW demand for the week was 700 kW
7. Demand Factor
• Ratio of maximum demand to connected load
8. Utilization Factor
• Ratio of the maximum demand to rated capacity
9. Load Factor
• Ratio of the average demand of any individual customer or group of customers over a period to the
maximum demand over the same period
10. Diversity Factor
• Ratio of the maximum noncoincident demand to the maximum diversified demand
11. Load Diversity
• Difference between maximum noncoincident demand and the maximum diversified demand

For “steady state” representation, individual electric loads are generally designated as falling into one of three
categories depending on how they vary as a function of voltage;
1. Constant impedance loads, for example an incandescent light or the heating element in an electric water heater,
are a constant impedance, whose resulting load varies as the square of the voltage.
2. Constant current loads, including some types of power supplies, many electroplating systems, and other industrial
processes, are basically constant current loads. Energy drawn from the system is proportional to voltage.
3. Constant power loads, such as some types of electronic power supplies, and to an approximate degree, induction
motors, vary their load only slightly in response to changes in voltage.

Characterizing Customers by Class


Usually, electric consumers are grouped into classes of broadly similar demand behavior. A class is any subset of
customers whose distinction as a separate group helps identify or track load behavior in a way that improves the
effectiveness of the analysis being performed. Electric utilities most often distinguish customers by rate class (pricing
category). Customer studies (load research) often make additional distinctions based on demographics, income, or
SIC (standard industrial classification) code.
Regardless, usually all customers in a class have similar daily load curve shapes and per-customer peak demands,
because they employ similar types of appliances, have similar needs and schedules, and respond in a similar fashion
to weather and changes in season.

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