For many Alberta and BC commercial and industrial accounts, the demand charge on your bill (measured in kW) costs more than the energy charge (measured in kWh). Demand shaving targets that charge directly.
Most residential electricity bills are simple: you pay for how many kilowatt-hours (kWh) you used. Commercial and industrial accounts, especially anything above roughly 50 kW of peak load, usually pay a second charge on top of that: a demand charge, billed in dollars per kilowatt (kW), based on the single highest 15-minute interval of power draw during the billing period.
That means one short spike, a chiller, a compressor, or several pieces of equipment starting at once, can set your demand charge for the entire month, even if it lasts only a few minutes. Demand shaving is the practice of flattening those spikes, typically using a battery system, load-shifting software, or a combination of both, so your peak draw from the grid stays lower even though your total energy use doesn't change.
On a typical Alberta or BC commercial rate schedule, demand charges can represent 30–50% of a facility's total monthly bill. In the sample commercial cash-flow proformas we build for clients, demand-related charges alone often run into the thousands of dollars per month for a mid-size industrial account, separate from energy consumption entirely. That means demand shaving can produce meaningful savings even on a facility that has already installed solar, because solar addresses kWh consumption while demand shaving addresses the kW peak.
There are three main levers, usually deployed together:
An on-site battery system, sized to your facility's peak profile, discharges automatically during the highest-draw intervals of the day, covering part of the spike so less power is pulled from the grid at that moment. The battery recharges during lower-cost or lower-demand periods, often from solar generation.
Shifting flexible loads, like batch processes, EV charging, or non-time-sensitive equipment, away from your facility's typical peak window. This requires understanding your interval data closely enough to know when your peaks actually occur.
Software that tracks your facility's demand in near real time and can trigger automated responses, like battery discharge or non-critical equipment shutdown, before a new monthly peak gets set.
Before recommending a system, we pull your facility's interval data (typically 15-minute kW readings) for a full year if available, the same way a formal energy-use profile is built for any commercial solar or storage proposal. This reveals your facility's actual peak pattern: whether it's a predictable daily spike, a seasonal pattern, or driven by a specific piece of equipment. That pattern determines whether a battery, load scheduling, or a combination makes the strongest financial case, and it determines exactly how large a battery needs to be, since oversizing wastes capital and undersizing leaves savings on the table.
| Charge Type | What Addresses It |
|---|---|
| Energy consumption (kWh) | Solar generation offsets grid draw directly |
| Peak demand (kW) | Battery dispatch and load scheduling (demand shaving) |
| Outage risk | Battery storage sized for backup duration |
| Rate volatility exposure | Solar + storage combined, reducing reliance on floating market rates |
Most commercial energy proposals we build combine at least two of these, since a battery sized for demand shaving is also the battery that stores solar production and provides backup power, and the incremental cost of adding that capability to an existing solar project is usually far lower than building a standalone system later.
A metal manufacturing facility in Alberta was paying demand charges that made up nearly 40% of its monthly utility bill, driven by short compressor start-up spikes each morning.
An interval-data review identified the exact 15-minute window responsible for the facility's monthly peak. A battery system was sized specifically to cover that window, paired with a soft-start schedule for the compressor bank.
The facility's monthly demand charge dropped by roughly 35% within the first billing cycle after commissioning, with no change to production output.
Client name changed. Results vary based on individual circumstances. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Get a free interval-data review and see how much of your bill demand shaving could realistically cut.
