EE 137 – DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM AND

SUBSTATION DESIGN

TOPIC NO. 3 LOAD

CHARACTERISTICS
 IMPORTANCE OF LOAD CHARACTERISTICS

➢ To determine the total power and energy requirements of the system

➢ Planning of power plant capacity

ENERGY DEMAND

➢ Load at the receiving terminal ( KW or KVA ) averaged over a specific

interval of time of short duration
 ENERGY DEMAND INTERVAL
➢ It is the period over which the loads is averaged

LOAD CURVES OF A GENERATING STATION

➢ The total power requirement of a generation station can be estimated
using this curves

LOAD CURVES (OR CHRONOLOGICAL LOAD CURVE)

➢ It represent the load in its time sequence.

➢ It is plotted for one day by taking average load based on the time
interval which is usually an hour.
 LOAD CURVES and LOAD-DURATION CURVE

100 KW 100 KW

LOAD CURVE LOAD-DURATION CURVE

80 KW 80 KW

40 KW 40 KW

10 KW 10 KW

0 6 AM 7 AM 8 AM 9 AM 0 2 hr 5 hr 11 hr 13 hr

The load duration curve can be daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. Sometimes the plots are
done in per unit values.
LOAD CURVES OF A GENERATING STATION
Peak load
KW
KW
Load curve Peak load Load-duration curve

Intermediate load Intermediate load

Base load Baseload

Base load
TIME

TIME
The total load supplied by a generating station is
normally divided into three parts: The base load is the load below which the demand
never falls and is supplied 100% of the time. The Peak
✓ Base Load
load occurs for about 15% of the time. The
✓ Intermediate Load intermediate load represents the remaining load
✓ Peak Load region in the curve.
 HOW TO DETERMINE LOAD CHARACTERISTICS

MAXIMUM DEMAND: It is the greatest Demand of the Load on the power station
during a given period .

DEMAND FACTOR: It is the ratio of the maximum demand on the power station to its
connected load
Maximum Demand ( KW )
Demand Factor =
Connected Load (KW )

The value of demand factor is usually less than 1. It is expected because maximum
demand on the power station is generally less than the connected load. If the
maximum demand on the power station is 80MW and the connected load is 100MW.
Then demand factor = 80/100 = 0.8 . The knowledge of demand factor is vital in
determining the capacity of the plant equipment.
AVERAGE LOAD: It is the average of loads occurring on the power station in a given
period ( day, month or year ) .
No. of units (kWh) generated in a day
Daily average Load (KW) =
24 hrs

No. of units (kWh) generated in a month

Monthly average Load =
Number of hours in a month

No. of units (kWh) generated in a year

Yearly average Load =
Number of hours in a year / 8760 hours
LOAD FACTOR: The ratio of average load to the maximum demand during a given period .

Average load (KW)

Load Factor =
Max. Demand (KW)

If the plant is in operation for T hours.

Average load x T (kwhr)

Load Factor =
Max. Demand x T (kwhr)

Units generated in T hours

Max. Demand x T
DIVERSITY FACTOR : It is the ratio of sum of individual maximum demands to the maximum
demand on the power station.

Sum of individual max. demands

Diversity Factor =
Max. demand on power station

PLANT USE FACTOR: It is the ratio of KWHR generated to the product of plant capacity
and the number of hours for which the plant was in operation

Station output in KWh

Plant Use Factor =
Plant Capacity x Hours of use
 CAPACITY FACTOR : It is the ratio of actual energy produced to the maximum possible
energy that could have been produced during a given period.

Actual energy produced

Capacity Factor =
Max. energy that could have been produced

Average demand x T
=
Max. demand x T

Average demand x T

Plant Capacity

Annual KWHR output

Annual Capacity Factor =
Plant capacity x 8760
END