Peak Shaving: How You Could Save Up To 23% On Electricity

Thursday, October 27th, 2022

A simple strategy that businesses like yours should know about

Western Australian business owners are experiencing the pain of higher electricity prices but are often oblivious to the one strategy that could save them thousands of dollars per annum. With electricity prices forecasted to increase even further, business proprietors like you need to act now as we head into a summer threatened with a shortage of electricity supply.

What is Peak Shaving, and how it can help you

One simple strategy to help reduce energy costs for businesses and relieve pressure on a temperature-dependent grid, is Peak Shaving (often referred to as Demand Response or Load shedding). Unlike the East Coast, the Western Australian wholesale electricity market is a capacity market and is partially funded by capacity charges. Electricity cannot be imported from other states to ensure generation capacity meets demand, resulting in higher charges for consumers using electricity during peak demand times. However, most business operators have no idea that they are being charged higher electricity rates all year because of their use during peak intervals in summer. Over time, the peak demand times have shifted with the increased adoption of solar PV.

Amanda Energy’s Senior Energy Consultant, Alex Koresis reveals that “most business owners are not informed consumers when it comes to electricity charges. Large electricity consumers have a more sophisticated understanding and utilise analytics to work the grid in their favour by Peak Shaving but, contestable small-use customers can also benefit from this program”.

Is your business ‘contestable?

A contestable business in the electricity industry uses more than 50,000 kWh per annum and that equates to a spend of approximately $1200 per month. Theoretically, a small business with a spend of $15,000 per annum could reduce its annual costs up to $3000 by peak shaving. For large-use customers, savings could be tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per year!

So, why don’t more businesses do this? “Often they don’t know, or owners are too busy and don’t take the time to understand how Peak Shaving works”, says Alex. “Some have valid reasons because of the nature of their business, and they cannot reduce load during peak demand times. However, there are creative ways to help reduce demand by utilising technology and human resources to achieve a positive outcome. These are often customised to the unique settings for each business and require consultation and more detailed analysis” he says.

Given the potential of a 23% reduction in electricity costs, it’s worth a deeper look to see how much your business could save by peak shaving. For more information, contact Amanda Energy or learn more about Peak Shaving energy optimisation.