Did you know that businesses are billed based on the 15 minutes they use the most electricity in a month? This is known as peak energy, meaning the maximum consumption reached.
While residential customers only pay for energy they consume, Hydro-Québec’s commercial and industrial customers also pay for the power they require.
That requirement can even account for more than 50% of a given bill. If there is a very high demand for energy at a particular time of the month, the customer has to pay the price. Normal consumption must be close to the peak to optimize energy consumption and the utilization factor. In other words, good power management reduces costs.
That’s exactly what IDEA Contrôle offers with its equipment. First, there’s the Synapse system, a local monitoring tool for managing energy that is installed in a plant and helps manage power demand in the building, explains Executive Director Francis Gauthier.
The Axor tool then optimizes Synapse’s work, analyzing and controlling the use of available energy. “Consumption can be monitored continuously to see where the load can be reduced and determine how much power is available below the peak,” he adds. Using artificial intelligence, the tool can also predict a building’s energy consumption 24 hours in advance by factoring in its consumption history, as well as weather forecasts and even wind direction.
With that information, the building can be preheated as required, using energy during off-peak hours. In a grocery store, the system can shut down the freezers for short periods of time in rotation to reduce consumption and power demand.
