Help calculating usage with only utility info

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

Timona

Member
Location
Houston, Texas
Occupation
Graduate Electrical Design Engineer
I have an interesting question.

I have a client who has only supplied me with 3 months worth of electric bill. I have calculated daily average using these and it is 5000KWh.

Is there a way I could do any calculations that can bring me close to this? I only have 3 months bill. It is a 1200A, 480V service.
 
Timona said:
I have an interesting question.

I have a client who has only supplied me with 3 months worth of electric bill. I have calculated daily average using these and it is 5000KWh.

Is there a way I could do any calculations that can bring me close to this? I only have 3 months bill. It is a 1200A, 480V service.
Click to expand...
Is it maximum demand that you are trying to determine? Some utilities can supply the maximum demand over the past couple of years.
 
Timona said:
Daily average KWh..if there is any calculation to support or come close to the 5000 Kwh
Click to expand...
There is no way to do that from the typical utility bill. The bill cannot tell you when the energy was used. Could be all used in a couple of days, or spread out over the normal number of days of operation, or any other combination.
With smart meters you can often download a lot of information. I can download the 15 minute kWH usage for the past year. If you have something like that you could sum the 15 minute usages for each day and find a daily average.
 
ggunn said:
Is it maximum demand that you are trying to determine? Some utilities can supply the maximum demand over the past couple of years.
Click to expand...
Yes.
From what I gather, they do not have time to install a power monitor for load study.
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
There is no way to do that from the typical utility bill. The bill cannot tell you when the energy was used. Could be all used in a couple of days, or spread out over the normal number of days of operation, or any other combination.
With smart meters you can often download a lot of information. I can download the 15 minute kWH usage for the past year. If you have something like that you could sum the 15 minute usages for each day and find a daily average.
Click to expand...
This is what I thought, pulling off some memories from high school physics.
 
Agreed. It needs to be a demand meter that records peak kVA / kWD. Theres simply no way to quantify peak demand within a 15 minute interval if your units are in a measure of overall power usage per unit time.

It would be like trying to figure out GPM coming out of the hose if you only knew how much total water was inside of a bucket.
 
Is this a commercial building or residence? In Florida where I am at, the utility bill has both the kWH and the kw information on it. Ask the owner for the last 12 months of utility bills.
 
Timona said:
Yes.
From what I gather, they do not have time to install a power monitor for load study.
Click to expand...
I have had some success in obtaining the maximum demand over the past year or two for a commercial service from the utility. I was able to use this information for justifying the downsizing of the MSD OCPD to enable a load side PV connection.
 
Timona said:
I have an interesting question.

I have a client who has only supplied me with 3 months worth of electric bill. I have calculated daily average using these and it is 5000KWh.

Is there a way I could do any calculations that can bring me close to this? I only have 3 months bill. It is a 1200A, 480V service.
Click to expand...
Ask the client if they will give you access to their interval data. Usually it is just a form from the utility ssigned by a person authorized on the account. Then you can log in and download interval data and other hitorical usage information. Typically you get 15 minute or 30 minute interval data, and can go back more than a year. If would guess for 1200A 480V service they have an interval meter onsite. If it is Centerpoint in Houston, they call it Demand & Energy Information System, according to their website.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top