Keith from Spokane. Picked up a large commercial greenhouse operation. They grow flowers year-round using supplemental LED grow lights during winter months. The lighting load during winter is enormous — essentially doubling their electricity consumption from October through March. The utility has them on an agricultural rate which is favorable but I am wondering if a TOU structure within the agricultural rate would be even better given the predictable seasonal pattern of the grow light load. Has anyone optimized within an agricultural rate class?
Rate class for a greenhouse operation with grow lights
Janet from Tacoma. Agricultural rates often have TOU variants specifically designed for irrigation and lighting loads. Worth checking whether your utility has filed a TOU agricultural rider.
Janet do those riders apply automatically or require opt-in?
Janet again. Almost always opt-in. The utility will not proactively migrate agricultural customers to TOU variants even when the savings are obvious.
Eddie from Spokane. The seasonal pattern you describe is actually ideal for TOU optimization. If the grow lights can run during off-peak hours — which they can for most flowering crops that just need a certain number of hours of light per day regardless of when — the TOU savings could be significant.
Eddie, the grower does have some flexibility on when the lights run. They currently run on a timer set to early morning hours which might already be off-peak. I need to check the utility's peak hour definition.
Eddie again. That early morning timing is potentially very favorable. A lot of TOU tariffs define peak as mid-afternoon to evening. Early morning grow light operation might already be mostly off-peak without any operational change.
If that is the case the TOU enrollment is a pure gain with no operational adjustment required. Going to pull the TOU schedule and overlay it with the lighting timer data.