Demand analysis
The demand charge is set by the single 15-minute block with the highest power use in the billing cycle, so one short moment can make the whole month’s bill more expensive. Demand analysis helps you find when that moment was, what caused it and where to act first. Open it from Energy → Demand analysis, or click the Max demand card on the dashboard.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- An electricity meter must already be sending readings. With no data, the page says “No demand facts for this cycle.”
- Money figures (demand charge, peak-shave prize) need a Demand rate, and the contract line needs a Contract demand. See Site energy settings.
- Opened from a location’s dashboard, the page analyses that location, for example “Demand analysis — Cooling Water”. Opened from the menu, it analyses the whole site.
Choose a billing cycle
Section titled “Choose a billing cycle”Under Billing cycle, use the arrows or the list to pick a cycle. The current one is marked current. Its figures are “so far” and can still change until the cycle ends.
Read the analysis
Section titled “Read the analysis”| Part | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Billed peak | The highest 15-minute average of the cycle (kW), when it happened, whether it was on-peak or off-peak, and the comparison with last cycle |
| Demand charge | Billed peak × Demand rate |
| Contract headroom | How many kW are left before contract demand, and the peak as a percentage of the contract |
| Diagnosis | Whether the peak is a spike or a plateau (see below) |
| Peak profile | Demand in 15-minute blocks over the day of the peak, with the contract line |
| Load coincidence | What was running in that 15-minute block, By end-use or By meter. The first item is marked 1st lever, and Coverage tells you what share of the billed peak the sub-meters explain. |
| Peak-shave prize | How much you would save on the demand charge per cycle and per year by cutting the peak. Pick a target: to 2nd peak (the 2nd-highest block), to 5th peak or to 90% contract. |
| Recommendations | What to do, ordered high, medium, low. Some link to the machine involved with View asset →. |
Spike or plateau
Section titled “Spike or plateau”- Spike: one 15-minute block stands clearly above the rest, for example two large machines starting together. Rescheduling so they don’t overlap fixes it, so cutting that one block really lowers the demand charge.
- Plateau: demand sits near the peak for several blocks in a row. Cutting one block barely helps; reduce the base load or review the contract demand instead.
Recommendations PULSE can show include staggering the second-largest load that ran at the same time (on a spike), setting a demand alarm at 90% of contract (when the peak is within 15% of contract) and moving work out of the on-peak window (when the peak fell on-peak). Alarms are set up in Set alarm rules.