Commercial Demand Charge Review
Demand Charges Can Quietly Increase Your Business Electricity Bill. We Help You Control the Peak.
PowerIdeas.au helps businesses understand what demand charge means, why it appears on commercial bills, and how solar, battery storage and peak shaving control can reduce high demand events.
Demand charge is based on your highest power draw, not just total energy use
Many commercial electricity bills include both energy usage charges and demand charges. Energy usage is usually measured in kWh. Demand is commonly based on how much power your site draws at its highest point during a billing period, often measured in kW or kVA.
This means one short high-load event can affect the bill, even if total energy usage is not unusually high.
Why do retailers and networks charge demand?
Commercial customers can create short periods of high load. The electricity network must have enough capacity to support these peaks, even if they happen only briefly.
Network capacity
High demand requires more network capacity, so demand charges help recover the cost of supporting peak load.
Business equipment
Air conditioning, refrigeration, ovens, pumps, compressors, machinery and EV charging can create high peak demand.
Short peaks matter
Demand charges can be triggered by short high-demand periods, not only by total monthly consumption.
Common reasons businesses get high demand charges
Equipment starts together
EV charging adds peak load
Hot weather demand
No monitoring or alerts
Demand reduction starts with controlling the highest peak
The goal is not only to use less energy. The goal is to reduce the short high-demand events that trigger the charge.
Stagger loads
Avoid starting multiple high-load equipment items at the same time.
Increase solar self-use
Use solar generation to support daytime business load where possible.
Install battery storage
Use a battery to discharge during short peak demand events.
Add monitoring
Track peak events and use alerts to manage load before it becomes costly.
How battery peak shaving can be set up
One practical way to reduce demand charge is battery peak shaving. The battery is configured to discharge when site load approaches a selected demand limit, helping prevent the site from setting a new high peak.
Analyse the bill and load profile
Review demand charges, kW/kVA peak, tariff rules, operating hours and interval meter data if available.
Choose a demand limit
Set a practical target threshold so the battery discharges when site load approaches that level.
Configure battery discharge control
Use inverter/EMS settings so the battery responds to real-time load and reduces grid import during peak events.
Monitor and adjust
Track performance after installation and adjust thresholds as business load changes.
✅ Battery peak shaving may work well when
- Demand charges are a meaningful part of the bill
- Peak demand events are short and predictable
- Business load happens during solar generation hours
- There is enough battery capacity to cover peak events
- Monitoring and control settings are properly configured
⚠️ Benefit may be limited when
- Demand charge is small or not applied to the tariff
- Peak demand lasts too long for the battery size
- Load profile is highly unpredictable
- Battery is not configured for peak shaving
- There is no monitoring to confirm demand reduction
Upload your commercial electricity bill for a demand charge review
We will review your demand charges, load patterns and whether battery peak shaving or energy management may reduce business energy costs.