Energy monitoring guide
Load monitoring: see how your plant really draws power.
The bill shows one Maximum Demand and one total for the month. Load monitoring shows how that load builds up through every hour of every day, on every panel. That is where the demand charge, the night-time waste and the room for growth become visible.
What to measure
| Quantity | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| kW (active power) | The useful power doing work right now |
| kVA (apparent power) | What the supply carries, and what kVA Maximum Demand is billed on |
| kVAr (reactive power) | The part that does no work: the power factor gap |
| Current per phase | Cable and breaker loading, and whether the phases share the load |
| kWh and kVAh | Energy used, for the bill and for each department |
On a kVA-billed connection, watch kVA alongside kW. The difference between them is power factor, and on a kVAh bill it is paid for in every unit.
Reading a load profile
A load profile is the plant’s demand plotted through the day. Five things to look for:
- The peak interval. The highest 15- or 30-minute average sets the month’s Maximum Demand. Find which hour it falls in and what was running.
- Base load. The demand at night, on Sundays and between shifts. Anything above lighting, security and essential services is load nobody is using.
- Start-up ramps. Shift starts and restarts after a power cut, when many loads come on together.
- Peak-hour load. How much runs in the TOD peak window, and how much of it could move. See TOD tariff.
- Day-to-day spread. If the same shift draws very differently on similar days, something changed: a process, a machine, a setting.
Load factor: how evenly you use the demand you pay for
Load factor is average demand divided by Maximum Demand. A plant with a flat profile pays a demand charge on capacity it uses all month; a spiky plant pays for capacity it touches once. Work out yours with the load factor calculator.
Panel by panel, not just the incomer
The incomer meter shows the plant total. The peak, the idle load and the growth are always somewhere specific: a compressor house, a furnace line, a utility block. Monitoring each panel shows which one built the peak and which one keeps drawing at night. See sub-metering for where to start.
Using load data to plan
- Before adding a machine, check the headroom between your peak and your Contract Demand.
- Before revising Contract Demand, check a year of monthly peaks, not one bill. See Contract Demand.
- After a change, compare the load profile before and after to see what it actually saved.
Load monitoring in KONDUKTOR® EMS
- Live kW, kVA, kVAr and current on every meter, with the running Maximum Demand interval against Contract Demand.
- A day-by-hour heatmap of the whole month, and hourly minimum and maximum with the time each occurred.
- Up to 45 days overlaid on one time-of-day chart, with a typical-day band to spot the unusual ones.
- Load factor per meter, and an alert on any reading crossing a limit you set.
- Excel and CSV export of every meter’s history.
Common questions
What is a load profile?+
A load profile is how a plant’s demand changes through the day, usually as 15- or 30-minute averages. It shows the peak interval that sets Maximum Demand, the base load at night and between shifts, and how much load runs in TOD peak hours.
Why monitor kVA and not just kW?+
On a kVA-billed connection, Maximum Demand is charged on kVA, and on a kVAh tariff every unit is counted in kVAh. kVA includes the reactive power that low power factor adds, so it shows what you are actually billed on.
How often should load be recorded?+
Every few seconds for live viewing and alerts, rolled up into 15- or 30-minute intervals for Maximum Demand, the same way the DISCOM meter calculates it. Hourly and daily summaries are enough for long-term trends.
See your load profile panel by panel.
Book a live demo and see the peak interval, base load and heatmap on meters like yours.