Anyone else seeing strange demand spikes in Georgia Power interval data right at midnight? I've got three different clients showing 15-20 kW jumps for exactly one interval at 00:00, then back to normal baseline. This is affecting their TOU billing under Schedule PL-1. The spikes are pushing them into higher demand tiers but the energy usage doesn't match. Georgia Power claims it's legitimate load but something smells fishy here.
Georgia Power 15-min data showing weird spikes at midnight
Derek - I'm in Savannah and seeing the exact same thing with Georgia Power! Three of my manufacturing clients have these phantom midnight spikes. The weird part is the power factor data doesn't show any corresponding reactive power changes. I've been going back and forth with their meter services department for weeks. They keep insisting the meters are reading correctly but won't explain what could cause such precise timing.
This sounds like a meter communication issue or possibly a data processing glitch on Georgia Power's end. In Tennessee with TVA, I've seen similar artifacts when the AMI system has sync problems during the daily data rollover. The meter might be buffering data and then dumping it all at once at midnight. Have you tried requesting the raw meter logs instead of just the processed interval data?
Terry that's a great point about the raw logs. I submitted a formal dispute citing GPSC Rule 515-3-4-.08 which requires utilities to provide detailed meter data for billing disputes. Still waiting on that. Eleanor - have your clients filed formal complaints yet? I'm thinking we might need to escalate this to the PSC if it's affecting multiple customers across the territory.
I had something similar with Duke Energy here in Charlotte last year. Turned out to be a firmware bug in their Landis+Gyr meters that was causing interval timestamps to shift during DST transitions. The meters were actually recording legitimate load but assigning it to the wrong time intervals. Might be worth checking if your Georgia Power sites have the same meter model and firmware version.
Derek O - that's interesting about the DST issue. These spikes started showing up in March right after the time change. I'll check the meter models on my affected sites. Two of them are definitely Landis+Gyr Focus meters. This could save my clients about $15,000 in excess demand charges if we can prove it's a metering error.
Update: Georgia Power finally admitted there was a firmware issue affecting certain Landis+Gyr meters installed between 2011-2012. They're issuing credits for the erroneous demand charges. Eleanor was right - this ended up being about $18K in total adjustments across my three clients. Thanks everyone for the insights!