Modeling Rates With Demand Ratchets

Hi Paul,

Is there a workaround method for calculating demand ratchets within SAM?

Best,

Nathan

Hi Nathan,

SAM does not explicitly model demand ratchets. From my research on the subject, it looks like there are a few different ways they can work. How does the demand ratchet you would like to model work?

Best regards,
Paul.

Paul,

It is quite a simple calaculation which is why i'm a bit suprised it hasn't been incorporated into SAM yet. But basically a 100% demand ratchet over a 12 month rolling period would look at a annual peak and then charge the customer their demand portion by that amount for each month.

Or in other words, if annual peak demand was 100 kW and the demand charge was $10/kW then the customer's annual demand charge would simply be (100kW)*($10/kW)*(12) = $12,000.

Using ratchets lower than 100%, 90% for example, sets the annual max to 90% distributed to each month's demand charge. The exception to this is if that month's actual demand is greater than the 90% of the annual peak. In that case the actual month's peak demand is used.

Thanks for the explanation. We'll look into implementing that for a future version.

Best regards,
Paul.