Demand View
The Demand view of the Data Browser shows business or commercial and industrial customers their demand (kW) and reactive power (kVAR) over time. Demand refers to the rate at which a business consumes electricity, not the actual amount that is consumed. Demand is expressed in kilowatts (kW) rather than kilowatt-hours (kWh). This information allows businesses to see at what point in time they draw the most energy from the grid, and to consider how to lower their demand during those times in the future.
Note: Within the Demand view, data can only be displayed in the Day view. Other resolutions such as Bill view or Year view are not applicable or available.
On this page:
Requirements
Utility Requirements
Same as listed in Data Browser.
Customer Requirements
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Category |
Description |
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Billing Frequency |
Same as listed in Data Browser. |
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Data Delivery Frequency |
Same as listed in Data Browser. |
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Data Requirements |
Interval Data: Electric interval data in kWh is required. For information on providing this data, see the Oracle Utilities Opower Interval Data Transfer specification. Premise Data: Premise data for the business is required. See the Oracle Utilities Opower Premise Data Transfer specification for more information. Reactive Power Data: To display reactive power data, an additional input of interval data must be provided in kvarh. An applicable Customer Classification: The customer must be classified as a non-residential customer. For information on defining the customer type, refer to the Oracle Utilities Opower Billing Data Transfer specification. |
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Data History |
Same as listed in Data Browser. |
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Data Coverage |
Same as listed in Data Browser. |
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Supported Fuels |
Electricity and dual fuel. Demand data for gas cannot be shown. |
Limitations
- Calculated Demand Data: The Demand view does not use or support demand rates data. Demand data is displayed as kWs in hourly intervals. It is calculated based on interval data provided in kWh and is available to all business customers for a utility.
- Peak Demand Icon: Any icon highlighting peak demand in the Demand view may not be consistent if a business has other rates that determine peak demand costs for their bill. For example, the Demand view may highlight a particular hourly interval as the business customer's highest demand interval, but this may not align with the peak usage indicated on a customer's bill if the business is billed for 30-minute usage intervals.
- Neighbors View Disabled: The Neighbors view is hidden by default from customers who see the Demand view. This is because the Neighbors view is unlikely to be relevant to commercial and industrial customers with demand data.
User Experience
The Demand view displays a customer's demand for a given day, with tooltips providing the exact values for each data point. The user experience described in this section is for a business customer with electric demand data and reactive power.
Fuel Menu
Only electricity data can be shown in the Demand view. If the business also receives gas from their utility, then a gas menu may be displayed but it will be grayed out in the Demand view so it cannot be selected.
Time Menu
In the Demand view, only subdaily data is shown. The Year view and Bill view are not applicable or available. Customers can use the forward or backward buttons to view data for one 24-hour period at a time.
Line Graph
The line graph uses a vertical axis (Y-axis) to show demand in kilowatts (kWs), and a horizontal axis (X-axis) to show time intervals. An icon is displayed over the highest demand interval to indicate when the demand for energy was at its peak. This icon is also shown on the Energy Use view, where business customers can quickly determine which day in a bill period contained the highest demand. The customer can then view that day in the Demand view to see the exact hour when demand was highest.
Example: Icon Showing Highest Demand Day
Example: Icon Showing Highest Demand Interval
Notes about the Peak Demand icon:
- Demand refers to the rate at which a business consumes electricity, not the actual amount consumed. This means that the interval with the peak demand icon may not always be the same as the interval with the highest amount of energy use. See Demand Versus Usage below for more background details and an illustration.
- The icon is not shown for days in the bill period that do not include the highest demand interval of the bill period. However, an icon is always shown in the Bill view of the Energy Use view, since that view always displays each day of the bill period.
- There are cases when multiple peak demand icons display within a day. See Multiple Peak Demand Icons below for details.
Reactive Power
Customers with reactive power data can visualize their reactive power in the Demand view. Reactive power refers to power that is used for the storage and retrieval of energy rather than the consumption of energy, and so it is typically very low compared to the line representing energy demand. The reactive power data is shown as a separate line, and it contains applicable information in tooltips.
When reactive power is shown, the label for the Y-axis of the line graph changes. This is because reactive power and demand data use different units of measure, and so a more generic label ("units") is used.
Tooltips
Tooltips are displayed when customers interact with a data point on the graph. In the Demand view, the tooltip provides the specific units of measure for each type of power: kilowatts (kW) for demand data, and reactive power (kVAR) for reactive power data (if available). Tooltips also display the demand use and a peak demand highlight for the day or interval with the highest demand of the bill period, as shown below.
See Energy Tooltips for details on what the tooltips may include in other views of the Data Browser.
Disclaimer
Disclaimer messages can be added to the Demand view that are specific to the view. For example, a disclaimer message can explain demand and reactive power charges. The disclaimer messages can also include links to resources where business customers can find more information.
Demand Versus Energy Use
Whereas demand is expressed in kilowatts (kW), energy use is expressed in kilowatt-hours (kWh). Demand can be thought of as the rate at which energy is drawn from the grid, rather than how much energy was consumed.
To use a metaphor, imagine that energy is water flowing through a pipe. The pipe itself, however, can only let so much water through at a time. The pipe is like "demand": its size determines how fast the water flows through to meet the need for water.
To give a more concrete example, consider two business customers, Mary and Bob. Mary's utility tracks her business's energy use every hour. This means she has one interval of data per hour. Now imagine that from 4-5 p.m. on March 1st, Mary's business consumed 100 kilowatts of electricity. This means that for the entire hour of 4-5 p.m., Mary's demand was 100 kilowatts, and her business consumed 100 kilowatt-hours.
Meanwhile, Bob's utility tracks his business's energy use every half an hour. This means he has two intervals of data per hour. Now imagine that from 4-4:30 p.m. on March 1st, Bob's business consumed 200 kilowatts of electricity. But then from 4:30-5, he did not consume any more electricity. This means that for the entire hour of 4-5 p.m., Bob's demand was 200 kilowatts, and yet he only consumed 100 kilowatt-hours, since he did not consume any electricity in the second half of the hour.
The important thing to note is that the rate or demand of Bob's electricity consumption was twice as high as the demand of Mary's consumption—even though they both consumed the same amount of energy over a single hour in the end.
User Experience Variations
Multiple Peak Demand Icons
If the demand values for two or more intervals are the same, and these values technically represent the highest demand of the bill period, then multiple peak demand icons are displayed within the same day in the Demand view.
This may be the case, for example, at commercial or industrial locations where a specific set of high-power machinery or equipment needs to be turned on at regular points in time, resulting in a demand spike that consistently reaches the same amount multiple times in a day, or on multiple days in a bill period.
This behavior can also occur in the Energy Use view. See Energy Use View - Multiple Peak Demand Icons for details.