Hey everyone, Eddie K. here from North Las Vegas. I'm trying to decode Nevada Energy's Schedule GS-2 tariff and the demand charge structure is making my head spin. The tariff shows $18.95 per kW for the first 50 kW and $16.42 for excess, but I can't figure out how they're calculating the actual billable demand. Are they using a 15-minute window or peak monthly demand? Any insights would be appreciated.
Nevada Energy Schedule GS-2 demand charge calculation confusion
Eddie, Randy here. Nevada Energy typically uses the highest 15-minute average demand during the billing period for GS-2 customers. The key thing to watch is their ratchet provision - your billable demand can't be less than 60% of the highest demand established in the previous 11 months during summer billing periods (June through September). You'll find this buried in the "determination of demand" section of the tariff. I'd recommend pulling your interval data and tracking those 15-minute peaks to validate their calculations.
Linda M. from Tucson here. We deal with similar tariff language with TEP and APS. Eddie, make sure you're also looking at any power factor adjustments in that schedule - they can significantly impact your demand charges if your facility has a low power factor. Most utilities in the Southwest have penalty clauses for anything below 0.90.
Thanks Randy and Linda! Found the ratchet clause buried on page 3 of the schedule. This explains why our August bill was higher than expected even though our actual peak was lower. The 60% ratchet from our July peak really got us. Time to start load management planning for next summer.