Working with a large church (about 1,200 members) that's seeing demand charges of $8,500/month during their busy season. They've got sanctuary HVAC, a fellowship hall, kitchen, and office building. Usage is very peaked - Sunday mornings, Wednesday evenings, special events. The utility is AEP Ohio and they're on General Service rate GS-2. Any suggestions for demand management strategies?
Church getting hammered on demand charges
Arnold - churches are tough because of the peaky usage patterns. Have you looked at pre-cooling strategies? Start the HVAC earlier at lower demand, then coast during peak occupancy times. Also check if they qualify for any nonprofit rate schedules - some utilities have special religious organization tariffs.
Greg's right about pre-cooling. Also consider LED conversion if they haven't done it already - sanctuary lighting can be a huge load. Had a Methodist church cut their peak demand by 150 kW just switching to LEDs and adding occupancy sensors in classrooms and offices.
Good suggestions. They actually just finished LED conversion last year but the demand charges are still brutal. I'll look into AEP's nonprofit rates and propose a pre-cooling program. The sanctuary gets used maybe 8 hours a week but they're paying demand charges 24/7.