Managing the load on the power network for reliable supply
Like roads, electricity networks have ‘rush hours’ where power usage peaks and network capacity is fully utilised. This often occurs on cold winter mornings or evenings when home appliance use overlaps with the start and end of the work day, or during dry summer months when farmers need to run irrigation systems.
To meet this need we could expand the capacity of the network – much like adding another lane to the highway to handle peak traffic loads. But this is very expensive, especially given that the additional capacity is not needed 98% of the time and would mean price increases for all consumers.
Instead we manage and reduce the load on the network during periods of peak demand by:
- monitoring load closely and proactively managing when levels start to peak.
- encouraging customers to heat hot water cylinders at off-peak times.
- hot water ripple control.
- encouraging off-peak electricity use through lower pricing.
- offering rebates to customers who have signed up to a scheme so we can interrupt their irrigation power supply to reduce load.