What is peak demand?
Peak demand refers to the times of day when our electricity consumption is at its highest.
As the name suggests, peak demand is when demand for electricity is at its highest.
It tends to happen at times when everyone is at home, typically between 5pm and 9pm. And on very hot or cold days where the air con or heaters are on.
This peak demand can cause an imbalance, impacting system security and safety, leading to outages. As we experience more extreme weather and hotter summers, peak demand events are becoming more common.
It’s an issue facing electricity networks around the world. As well as climate change impacts, we’re asking more from our electricity infrastructure, with the two-way power flow of renewables, and increased demand.
How does Western Power respond to peak demand?
To manage this issue, we are undertaking a number of activities that, when combined, will help us to reduce peak demand and increase grid resilience, reliability and security. We are:
- Strengthening the grid with transmission upgrades and new generators
- Improving our forecasting and network management flexibility
- Communicating with customers to switch power use to outside peak electricity times
- Undertaking extensive bushfire mitigation programs to reduce potential outages from fires
- Implementing our long-term ‘modular grid’ approach for future grid resilience
- Implementing our longer term battery energy storage program
- Increasing the capacity of lines to better withstand peak and allow for more renewables to connect to the network
What are we doing to improve the network
Our long-term transition to a more renewable grid is well underway, increasing the grid’s resilience and sustainability.
As we upgrade grid infrastructure to support more renewables, batteries and EV’s, we’re strengthening its capabilities. This gives us better peak demand management, and more choice for customers around generating, storing and using power.
Our grid is also data driven, which improves our modelling and forecasting.
As climate change impacts grow, data from technology like Advanced Meters is helping us understand the impact of extreme weather events like heatwaves on the grid, how to better manage them, and how to best target investment into our future network.
How you can help at peak electricity times
We also want - and need - the WA community to help.
During peak energy hours, our customers can help by shifting their energy use and reducing power consumption, so we’re not all using energy at the same time. Every small change adds up, and it can save you money on your summer electricity bills.
- Set your air conditioner to 24 degrees. Plus every degree increase can reduce electricity costs
- Run your dishwasher and washing machine in the morning instead of after dinner
- Run all high energy use appliances outside of peak hours
- Use your pool pump in the middle of the day
- Turn off your appliances at the wall, they still use power on standby
Peak demand FAQs
Peak demand refers to the times of day when our electricity consumption is at its highest.
Annual peak demand occurs in summer during prolonged heat waves, usually between 5pm and 9pm when most people arrive home and switch on their air conditioners, TVs, lights and other household appliances. Air conditioner use amounts to nearly one third of the power consumed on the hottest days in January, February and March.
The peak demand during winter occurs on very cold weekday evenings when people heat their homes. Winter peak demand is slightly lower than summer peak demand, but has a significant impact in some areas of the network.
Heatwaves are considered three or more consecutive days of unusually high temperatures. Both temperatures and electricity demand tend to rise in the third and fourth days of consecutive hot days, as air conditioners increase output to manage the accumulating heat inside buildings.
The grid works hard during heatwaves. The combination of high electricity demand and high temperatures can impact the operation of key infrastructure like generators and transmission lines, increasing the risk of localised outages.
Electricity supply can be interrupted due to faults or heat-related strain in a generator (or generators), or when a transmission line capacity is reduced to avoid equipment damage resulting from high temperatures or shut off because of the risk of bushfires.
During peak energy hours, you can help by shifting your energy use and reducing power consumption. Every small change adds up, as well as save you money on your electricity bills. You can help by:
- Using your high energy appliances outside of the peak hours between 5pm and 9pm
- Setting your air conditioner to 24 degrees in hot weather and 20 degrees in cooler weather
- Running your dishwasher and washing machine in the morning avoiding use between the hours of 5-9pm
- Using your pool pump in the middle of the day
- Turning off appliances at the wall as they still use power on standby
- If you have solar power, setting your timer to run appliances in the middle of the day to get the most from the sun
We're building a modular grid of the future that will lead the way to a cleaner, brighter and more resilient energy supply.
We’re transforming the network to enable our customers to better harness batteries, rooftop solar and electric vehicles, which offers more choice in generating, storing, and using energy. The growing adoption of these devices is expected to help manage power demand by enabling households to have greater control over when and how much electricity they consume.
We’re continuing the roll out of our Advanced Metering Infrastructure which gives us greater insight into power usage across the network, enabling us to enhance our forecasting and refine where we target our investments to improve reliability.
In the event of multiple days of high demand, we’ve several measures in place to proactively manage this. We cancel planned works where necessary, and in the event of unplanned outages we stand-up additional customer support staff, network controllers and ensure all available fault and repair crews are ready.
Community and crew safety is fundamental. We're mindful of re-energising around vegetation to mitigate bushfire risk as our network infrastructure traverses a lot of urban bushland and parks. Work in one area of the network can still cause a spark some distance away. So high fire weather conditions mean we’re restricted in our ability to locate faults and restore power.
Each peak demand events provides us with additional insight and vital new data that helps us plan equipment upgrades and reconfigure system settings to allow for extra flexibility in areas of unprecedented high demand.
Localised unplanned outages are an interruption to the transmission or distribution of electricity that is unscheduled and can occur as a result of range of causes including: damage to wires caused by storms, lightning strikes, falling trees or branches, motor accidents, bushfires, equipment failure and high demand (overloading).
They can involve a handful or hundreds of homes and businesses depending on the cause, and supply is restored once repairs take place.
When the temperature remains high into the evening and customer demand is sustained, our network infrastructure doesn’t have a chance to physically cool down. This can result in an increased risk of faults and localised outages.